Hearts of Steel and Steal: Eyes of Emerald & Ice-Blue DISCONTINUED
by Universe Creator
Summary: A girl shrouded in mystery with too much of a free mouth and mind; that's how she'd remembered her. A headstrong, stubborn girl who you couldn't tell was dying from her smile, the way she cared about others. The trouble was, she shouldn't have cared. Not about a king who was the wrong choice for a ruler, but she did. Trouble was, the king cared about her back, and still does.
1. Prologue: Past & Present

Disclaimer: Don't own.

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><p>"Watch the mongrel die, girl!" Archer grabs the howling, hysterical child by the roots of hair, ripping her head up as he tightens his hold around her waist that pins her small body against his.<p>

"DADDY! DADDY, NOOO!"

"Archer, stop this!" Saber snarled in her fury, but her screams go unheard over that of the child's and the golden Servant's crackling laughter.

"Kiritsugu! Do something!" Saber looked up helplessly to her Master, who watched in shock and confusion the stage's scene from above, his two remaining command seals glowing like a candle in the darkness as he gaped, frozen in mid-order.

What could he do? He had intended to use his last two command seals to force Saber to obliterate the last remaining Servant and the Grail, not caring if the former-Master of Caster was caught in the crossfire. His daughter was supposed to be lying in an in-patient sick-bed at Fuyuki General Hospital. He had known there was a good chance John would show up to try and get the Grail himself, despite not having a Servant anymore. He was a desperate man, only wanting for his terminally-ill daughter to be healed. Could he kill his daughter along with him, Archer, and the Grail? Could he kill the girl that reminded him so much of his own daughter in both fate and personality, and the girl who Iri and Maiya had both died to protect? Could he stand there and let her watch her own father die first?

Meanwhile, Saber was immobilized. If she came one step closer, Archer would likely rip the girl's head off, and there was nothing short of a miracle she could do for John. Her hopes rested on Kiritsugu's shoulders. Please, please don't let her fail again.

_The sword was _made _so _you _would be the one to pull it out! If you try to make someone else king, two things could happen; one, either the King Arthur of your wish is given an heir so someone's there to be king after her. Or, two, the world makes it so there was never a need for King Arthur, meaning Britain would probably go 'poof', bye-bye. _

Again. For the millionth time, those words repeat in Saber's mind. The girl had not torn her down that starless night as the Servant of her namesake had. She had pointed out the flaws of her reign, things that Saber knew already and had accepted. Then, she had done something that had baffled even the condescending King of Conquerors. It had shaken her to her very core ever since, made her waver in her certainty even as the prize was right before her.

_Are you willing to risk the fifty-fifty chance of that happening to your kingdom?_

Was she? Was the World really so cruel as to twist her wish in such a way? Would it all be for nothing?

Once again, Arturia Pendragon is too late to act.

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><p>Lizzy Rider opens her eyes to the sound of the shrill and blaring noise of her alarm clock, bringing her palm slow yet heavily down upon the accursed thing's buttons to silence it. The young woman of just fifteen shoves off her futon's blankets, stretching her arms to the sky as she stands to also stretch her legs. Her dark chestnut-brown hair sways like a wavy curtain down her backside, reaching her knees like a wild and beautiful mane in its morning ratty-state. Eyes of the palest blue are rubbed of sleep, slim fingers brushing the grain-tear moles underneath both of her eyes and through her long lashes.<p>

The smell and sounds of breakfast cooking gain the attention of her grumbling stomach and she laughs a sound as soft as silk, lighter than a feather, at her belly's whining.

"Morning Shicchan, Sakura-chan. What's for breakfast?"

"Ah, Lizzy-san, good morning." Sakura Matou turns, ladle still in hand, to greet the brown-haired girl in her normal quiet manner.

"Good morning, cousin." The young man standing next to her at the kitchen stove, Shirou Emiya, feels his eyebrow twitch in annoyance at that damned nickname from who he calls 'The Brown-haired Devil'.

"Ah, why the tart mood, Shicchan? You've gotta stop sleeping in that dusty storehouse; it makes you grumpy."

"Ha-ha, Lizzy. Anyway, we're having natto and fish."

"Yum," She stifles a yawn. "Tigger-chan isn't here yet?"

The other teens both shake their heads, fighting to stifle smiles. Lizzy absolutely loved to tease Taiga, going as far as to further degrade her already much-scorned nickname across Fuyuki by comparing her to some American children's movie-character. She'd actually made Kiritsugu buy the movie and then made everyone watch it. At least, Shirou remembered well that fact, but not the movie itself. The young Emiya never knew why, but Kiritsugu just seemed wrapped around his cousin's finger when they were both younger, despite the man insisting he wouldn't adopt her like he had Shirou.

"Hey, why aren't you dressed? Taiga will kill you, and me, you know." Shirou complains upon turning around and seeing his cousin at the table, still in her pajamas.

Lizzy simply waves a hand in dismissal. "Relax, Shicchan, it's six. I've got plenty of time to get ready. Besides, I'm hungry."

"Lizzy…please…" Shirou sighs when she just beams him a bright smile, turning back to the food.

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><p>Little did they all know, that peaceful moment would seem like years in the past soon enough. Lizzy gritted her teeth as she felt a hot iron burning her hand, handle of a reinforced-broom still straining against the tip of the blood-red spear threatening to lunge at her heart at first opportunity.<p>

"So, you're a magus, huh? Too bad you're goanna die, girlie. Someone with this much spark and beauty…you'd a made one hell of a Master for all your guts." The blue-suited spearmen with eyes the color of his weapon and hair that of his outfit grunted between each sentence, fighting to break free from the hard pressed foot in his groin that pinned him to the wall, or to break that damn indestructible stick.

"Not…a…chance, asshole. I have…a promise…to…keep." With a scream, Lizzy takes a chance and breaks the guard, taking a split second to thwack the shaft of the spear aside before rolling to the side with all of her weight into it.

The sound of metal piercing air, a gasp of pain, and the sound of stone being imbedded reached her ears in quick succession. Lizzy sprang to her feet and turned to see Lancer pinned to the wall by a drill-like sword clean through his right shoulder.

"Not bad, little lady. You've certainly got more spunk then my Master, and judging from your running tactic earlier, I'd say you have just as much brains. Still, this isn't a fight you can win. Get out of here, and maybe we might see each other on the battlefield another day."

Lizzy turned to see the Servant in red from earlier, smiling smugly at her. She reflexively clenched the hand that had her freshly-carved command seals and nodded, an equally smug smile coming to her lips. "Tell my second-best of a junior that our issue is far from resolved. A message that's courtesy of Lizzy Rider, Servant."

The man in red frowns and opens his mouth, but Lizzy already, and without warning, jumps out of the window she was already stopped from slipping out of once earlier. She had somewhere she suddenly needed to be more than anywhere else.

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><p>"Lizzy! Lizzy, hey! Will you stop and answer me already! Why are you coming home so late, and why are you covered in dirt?!"<p>

Lizzy ignored Shirou, walking quickly across the yard to the storehouse in his wide, open yard. "Sorry, cousin, but I don't have time to explain, okay?"

Shirou doesn't have time to react as his head is suddenly rammed into the ground, instantly knocking him unconscious as Lizzy lets go of his collar and straightens up, turning to open the shed's door with little remorse for her actions. Kicking aside the stack of boxes around the center of the room near the far wall when she enters, the third-rate quickly kneeled and brushed delicate fingers across long since carved-cement. The circle glowed blue as it tugged, quickly latching onto, the offered food-source of her measly Magic Circuits' prana to function before taking more to the atmosphere for functional-nourishment.

Lizzy stood and closed her eyes, reaching deep inside of her, feeling the warmth of her heart blossoming in her chest and spreading across her arms and torso. She didn't need to do anything else, not with the thing inside of her for ten years.

A flash of blinding light as her spine burns with the strain of her mana.

A thick plume of smoke.

Her eyes and throat burning at the sudden, intense stimulation.

The last thing she hears before exhaustion and darkness take her under; _"Servant Saber, I ask of you, are you my Master?"_

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><p>AN: Hello! So, there are some things I want to make clear before questions are asked;

Shirou will not be a Master, but he will be involved in the war.

This is a Saber/OC fiction.

Lizzy Rider is an OC of my creation. She is fifteen and an academic and athletic genius who is the top student of the entire school, a year ahead of Rin and Shirou because of her intellect. Her father, John Rider, was a former-Master in the 4th war of a non-canon Caster to be revealed later, and a first gen-magus who was fighting for the Grail to wish a five-year-old Lizzy was completely healthy after she ended up being diagnosed with second-stage ovarian-cancer the year before the war. John and Kiritsugu were allies in the war because they have history together as mercenaries before Kiritsugu met Iri and the Einzbern, and John has close ties with Raiga Fujimura, like Kiritsugu.

I won't go into detail, but pretty much, this is a story where Kiritsugu managed to rescue Shirou before he was on the brink of death in the war-aftermath due to being in the right place at the right time, and he gave Avalon to Lizzy instead to cure her much more fatal cancer as a favor to John. He also became her legal-guardian and raised her alongside Shirou as a cousin. Lizzy knows how the war works, thanks to being actively involved during Kiritsugu's and John's alliance before she ended up needing to be admitted to the hospital because she was getting worse during the mid-second and final stages.

Because of all of this, Lizzy was actually the one to teach Shirou Magecraft after Kiritsugu's death, who didn't even tell Shirou he was a magus for reasons that will also be revealed later. Shirou has his natural 27 Circuits and 175 (5 x the cannon amount because he actively uses them after they are opened) units of od. He's around the UBW level of skill, but this will follow the Fate Route.

Anyway, that's all I can think of. Lizzy is a second-generation with 20 Circuits and 50 units of od, so off the bat she's a better Master then Shirou, but her powers will be explored later.

If you have any questions I didn't cover, drop them in a review. I hope you enjoyed.


	2. Uncertain Answers

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

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><p>Shirou Emiya was a good man. He was very helpful and kind to others for his typical fashion, and he would go above and beyond to protect everyone, especially those closest to him. That being said, there were times when his patience and caring nature were taken advantage of too often or when someone crossed the very few lines he had, and this was one of those times.<p>

"Hey, hold on a sec, what the hell's going on here?! Wait, damn it!"

He chased after the strange, armored blonde woman who carried his currently-unconscious cousin in her arms, calmly walking down the hallway to where he had specified the location of her bedroom as if this was the most natural scenario in the world. She was also quite content ignoring him, it seemed.

After waiting up until near eleven o' clock for his cousin to return from wherever she was still out to even after he'd come home late from work, finding her coming home covered in dirt and making a beeline for the shed, and suddenly blacking out, the last thing Shirou had expected to wake up to was this girl carrying his cousin bridal-style and kicking him in the ribs, demanding if he was an enemy or not in some accented-Japanese. He was in no mood for these games, especially now that his cousin seemed hurt in some way. Kiritsugu would never forgive him for letting something happen to Lizzy, and Shirou would never forgive himself if she were seriously hurt.

Still, this girl ignored him, sliding open the door to Lizzy's room with her foot and proceeding to the bed, where she placed her on it, not unlike a prince laying a princess to rest. Once her hands were free, the sharpest pair of green eyes Shirou had ever seen was turned on him, their blonde owner scowling.

"Boy, I do not know you, nor do I care to unless you are a verified ally. Until such a time I am given proof of your unquestionable alignment, I am not obligated to dispense any information to you. Nevertheless, you seem genuinely concerned for this young maiden's well-being, so I will tell you only that I am here to protect her, and I swear on my honor that I will do so until my dying breath. I do not intend harm to you or yours, so long as you do not wish ill of me and mine. I only ask you one thing; what is the name of this girl?"

Shirou blinks, the red-head completely taken aback by both the calm ferocity and strange arrangement of the words of this petite girl before him. He understood only two things; she was a predator that would not kill him unless of whim or anger, and that Lizzy was somehow important to her. Despite being fairly snubbed, Shirou decided to answer her question because of these things.

"Her name is Lizzy, Lizzy Rider."

"Lizzy…" The blonde's eyes widen in disbelief and shock, her head whipping around to glance back at the sleeping girl on the bed with a sudden surge of emotions that come too fast for Shirou to decipher before they are gone again. She gives a perfunctory nod, muttering solemnly more to herself then Shirou. "I see. So it is indeed true."

"H-Hey…is something wrong? How do you know my cousin?"

Those emerald gems look to him briefly in a glare before the blonde shakes her head, her eyes closed, and simply turns her back to him. "Thank you, I require nothing more. Lady Rider is in more than capable hands, so you may rest easy."

"What? Hey, hold on just a—"

"This is your only warning. Leave now."

The voice that had been only cold up to this point now cut Shirou like a blade. He was causing the predator to stir, and despite still wanting answers and being worried about his cousin, the naïve red-headed boy knew that he would be of no help to Lizzy if he was dead. It was a command, and one Shirou's every fiber screamed at him to obey, though he left a piece of his heart behind in Lizzy's hands.

He made sure to close the door quietly, deciding Lizzy would probably want food once she did—hopefully—wake up.

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><p>Arturia let slip a soft sigh once she no longer heard the boy's footsteps among the corridor, her eyes searching the face of her sleeping Master, very much a ghost of her past. The memories came flooding back despite her best efforts to fend them off. Sharing meals, stargazing on the Einzbern Castle's balcony, those few swordplay lessons…<p>

A throb of pain grips the young, king's heart remembering their very last moments together, and the last words this girl screamed at her, begging her to stay as she was beginning to flicker and fade away.

_I love you, don't die, Tori! Don't leave me like my daddy! I love you!_

The words she had said back.

_I love you too, Lizzy. I am sorry._

The tears burned her eyes, her throat tightening as she stomped on the memory to chase it away and shook her head to clear the tears and cloying, smiling bitterly. She had never understood those closest to her in all of her ten years serving as king, she had never loved anyone. Cared for, protected, cherished, yes, but never had she been able to say that someone had that hold on her heart in life. Never, that is, until she'd met a dying child in the midst of chaos that is war. A sister, a daughter, Arturia could not name their love, but she knew that little girl with pale-blue eyes and chestnut locks had an irremovable place in her heart.

A child who was terminally-ill and expected to expire. Now, ten years later, she was her Master. My, my, fate was indeed a fickle thing.

What was the reason for this love? Was it pity for one whose life was to be cut short? Was it that King Arthur had never interacted with children as a common experience? No, it was simple; this girl, unlike no other and with hardly any real world insight, understood the broken and desperate king. She understood, and she did not critique her, but tried to help in her own way.

The King of Knights wondered if that love would save her from scorn. After all, she had left her.

_The sword was _made _so _you _would be the one to pull it out! If you try to make someone else king, two things could happen; one, either the King Arthur of your wish is given an heir so someone's there to be king after her. Or, two, the world makes it so there was never a need for King Arthur, meaning Britain would probably go 'poof', bye-bye. _

_Are you willing to risk the fifty-fifty chance of that happening to your kingdom?_

She remembered those particular words well. Indeed, perhaps her wish would end in disaster, but she could not give it up. Would she be spurned as a fool in her love's eyes for that?

The king sighed once more, banishing her armor in thought and with a flash of light like petals scattering in the air. Carefully, the king brings a hand to caress her Master's cheek, feeling smooth, unblemished skin like a balm on her own calloused palms. She had no fever. Arturia's eyes wander, looking with disdain upon her Master's filthy clothes. She needed to be of properly clean dress, not to mention checked for injury.

A happy memory surfaces, the day she of all people had been convinced to come with Irisviel and give the child a bath. Even for one so many years away from developing, the girl had been so self-conscious of her body, but her preference for cleanliness and proper care of her hair had won out in the end. Arturia remembered her scars. Did she still have them?

Arturia shook her head again. This would not do at all. She was being too soft, and there was important work to be done. Setting to it, Arturia makes quick work of unbuttoning the brown vest and white-collared shirt underneath that, pushing them open to reveal a smooth, toned stomach, larger than expected breasts, and flawless, sun-kissed skin.

Arturia feels her face inexplicably and intensely warm, her heart pounding oddly in her chest. She had certainly…grown, but at least she was not wounded as far as the eye could tell. Gingerly, the king looped an arm underneath her head and around her shoulders, lifting the still unconscious-girl to sit up as she set to finishing the rest of her work.

Nearly thirty very uncomfortable minutes later, the Servant of the sword had stripped, examined and re-dressed her Master into a loose T-shirt and some very loose, big pants that resembled modern-day woolen trousers. Her heart had yet to cease thumping, and her ears and neck were blazing along with her cheeks by this time. Worse yet, and worse, she had no explanation as to why.

_Because, she is very beautiful, she is even more so than Guinevere. _A voice in the back of her head whispered. _And despite necessity of your actions, Master will view what you have done as distasteful. Something wrong…_

Arturia mentally slapped herself to shoo the voice. She did not think of Lizzy _that_ way. Such things were not proper of a knight.

"Mn, Tori…" Jade eyes immediately move to the bed to see a wakeful Master's eyes slowly focusing on her from their sleep-filled haze.

"Lizzy," The Servant wastes not a moment as she marches to the bedside. "Master, how are you feeling?"

"Pretty good, thanks. Sorry for collapsing on you earlier, but I kinda got exhausted after a brush with death and running for my life from Lancer earlier tonight. He may stop by again, but I can't be too sure since I left him to tangle with Archer and…"

"What?! We must prepare immediately if that is the case!"

"Wait, wait!" Lizzy grabs one gauntleted wrist, Arturia stopping like a leashed dog from scrambling for the door. "Tor, I said _might, _okay? Besides, we can't be any more prepared then we are; this place isn't exactly a well-protected, weapon-equipped fortress like back at Einzbern Castle. Hell, it isn't much of a house, either, but Shicchan and I make due."

Arturia furrows her brows, looking back at her Mistress over her shoulder. "Shicchan?"

"Ah, well, that's what I call him. His name is Shirou, and he's Kiritsugu's adopted son, Kiri-kun rescued him from the fire."

"Fire?"

Lizzy sighs, sheepish smile traded in for a frown. "This is going to take a long time to explain." She scoots over and pats the spot on the bed beside her. "Sit."

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><p>Shirou ran a hand through his messy, red hair. It had been over two hours. Should he go check on those two? His pondering is dashed at the sound of footsteps coming down the hall as he sets the third place at the table, the hot meal already there, ready to be dished. The tatami door slides open to reveal the blonde woman from earlier and his cousin.<p>

Shirou does a double-take between the two. They'd both changed clothes. The blonde's armor may as well have been a figment of his imagination while he was seeing her standing there in what was obviously a borrowed outfit of his cousin's; a plain, white shirt underneath a pale-blue cardigan-jacket and ruffled, three-tiered, black mini-skirt with a side-loop for a sword that was currently empty, her hair still in that pristine and braided bun tied with a blue ribbon. Shirou also couldn't help but notice something, something which made his head spin.

On a black cord, two thin, metal stars—one small and yellow, and the other a white-blue which was only twice the other's size—hung 'round the blonde's pale throat.

Shirou would recognize that necklace anywhere, because an identical one was hidden by his cousin's shirt, rarely taken from the guarding warmth of her chest. She had given this stranger the identical one, which, could only mean…

"Shirou, I'm sorry for all of the confusion earlier, but now that things have settled down…I'd like to introduce you to Saber, my best friend from when I was a kid." His cousin refuses to meet his wide eyes as she scratches the back of her head, a sure-sign she was nervous. "Although, it looks like you two may have gotten acquainted with each other earlier. Sorry, but uh, she's…gonna be staying here for a while and…well, it's like…We, um,"

"Lizzy, I believe that the most efficient way to go about this is to simply state the facts." The now-named Saber interrupts softly, a gentle hand on Lizzy's shoulder and the barest hint of a smile on her face. Shirou's mind reeled; her behavior was so different. They had to be friends for the nothing-but cold blonde to suddenly act, dare he say, so caring.

Lizzy heaves a sigh before all traces of anything but seriousness are erased, pale-blue eyes suddenly drilling into Shirou's pair of amber orbs. "We have a lot to talk about, Shirou," She says tonelessly, solemnly. "Starting with—"

The house plunges into darkness, the sound of loud, clanging bells filing their ears. Lizzy growls a curse under her breath while Shirou and Saber both tense as if electrified.

Lizzy's eyes suddenly glow like blue fire in the darkness. "Tohsaka…Shirou, I want two katanas and something for yourself, you and I are going to take on the back-up while Saber deals personally with the intruder. Keep your Circuits open. Saber, you know what to do while we handle the Master."

Shirou knew better then to hesitate, much less argue, when Lizzy's voice was deadly like that, especially when her Mystic Eyes were active. Three blades were in his hands in quick succession, and he kept the arming sword for himself. Saber was surrounded by a blinding flash of brief light and then vanishing down the hallway with the sound of clanking armor following after a brief nod to the boiling brunette of the group.

Shirou had no clue what was going on, but every battle instinct his cousin and father had spent a total of ten years pounding into him chased away anything he would have felt had this been the same time in another place.

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><p>Rin Tohsaka growled as she waited just outside the brick gate of the Emiya Estate. A Master. Why, of all things, did that <em>bitch <em>have to be a Master? It wasn't enough that she had to usurp both her titles of school idol and be the top student in the entire school. It wasn't enough that the girl long ago proved she could kick Rin's ass in martial arts. _Now_, Lizzy Rider, despite being a third-rate, was a Master as well.

The Tohsaka heir's only comfort was the unshakable fact that her mortal-enemy could never be her better or even her equal as a magus, even if she was a Master. After all, the last to fill the slots were always on the weak side, and Rider was a second generation. Archer would make quick work of her, anyway. There was no way she'd summoned yet, it had only been two hours. She'd have been here sooner if it weren't for the wild goose chase that was trying (and failing) to catch Lancer to finish what they'd started.

Her heart clenched in guilt as an image of Sakura flashed into her mind. Rin brought a hand to her chest as the tears burned her eyes. There was no way; Sakura couldn't come before the rules this time. Even if she didn't attack now, Rider would be killed at some point, but she also had to take care of Emiya, an illegal immigrant on her land, a magus taking residence here without her permission. It was her responsibility, but it didn't lessen the stabbing of the guilt for it, for what it would do to Sakura. Why did God love to torture her? What had she done? Was it because she was a Christian and a magus?

Her thoughts grinded to a crashing halt as Archer came flying _through _the gate. Right in front of her and a bit beat up.

"Archer!" She cries, the Servant grunting as he staggers to his feet in reply.

"TOHSAKA!"

Rin stiffens at the blood-curdling battle cry, reflexively whirling and grabbing a gem from her red coat's pocket. She barely has time to react, the sharp edge of a blade coming down already filling her vision before the clash of steel on steel rings so close to her that the vibration sends an electrifying chill down the red magus' spine.

Lizzy Rider growls as she glares at Kanshou. Rin takes the opportunity to jump back and put at least some distance between her and the enemy, Archer not daring to break the guard and bringing up Bakuya to the girl's neck to make sure she won't either.

A breeze of cutting wind brushes directly on her back, a swing missing by mere millimeters, then, a cry of shock. "Tohsaka-Ugh?!"

She whirls and drives the fist still clenching the gem straight in the attackers gut, cutting him off and blowing him away as the rock shatters and the engraved wind enchantment activates. She earns a few deep but not severe cuts along her arm and face, skidding a foot back and nearly into Archer for her trouble. The enemy gets hurled back six, a decent chunk of his abdomen's skin looking like ground hamburger as he struggles up, his face and arms skinned and bleeding as well as he struggles to breathe. Rin doesn't give her enemy, whom she recognizes as the Emiya boy, a chance for neither retaliation nor recovery.

"SABER!"

Rin stops dead in her tracks at the sound of Archer's scream of pain, turning just in time to see a deep gash pouring blood down his back as he is in mid-motion to falling to his knees, a blonde in blue and silver now next to Rider, whose already running for her.

No, he couldn't be killed yet, and neither could she. Only one thing to do.

"Archer, bring me to the manor! IMMEDIATELY!"

In a ripple of time-distortion, Rin sees Archer vanish as a hot iron brands her hand and her second command seal vanishes. Then, an arm is around her and the world blurs into a mass of jumbled colors.

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><p>"FUCK!" Lizzy screamed the curse, throwing the swords down to the ground so hard that the projections shatter with Shirou's startle and coming to a stop mid-charge. "WHY did you stop, you idiot?! We could've ended them right there!"<p>

"Ended her?!" Shirou cries with indignation loud enough to shake the air. "That was Rin Tohsaka! She goes to our school! She's our classmate, and you want me to kill her?!"

Lizzy seethes, stomping over to the equally-irate red-head. "Yes! She isn't just our classmate, you dunce! She's a magus, AND an enemy who JUST TRIED TO KILL US! Or did you miss that part?!

"Enough! Both of you!" Both teens freeze, looking back as the still-armored blonde approaches them, invisible weapon gone and a glare on her face. "While I do not deny that what occurred just now was an extremely costing blunder on Shirou's part, Master, I believe you told me he is not yet aware of anything regarding this contest, correct?"

Already knowing what's coming, Lizzy gives a long, agitated sigh. "Yes."

"Then I believe his mistake, for only this occasion, is excusable. Any soldier, no matter how trained, has great difficulty cutting down a former-comrade once they are found to truly be on the opposing side."

Lizzy huffs and crosses her arms as she begrudgingly nods. "You have a point."

"Contest? What are you two-?!" Shirou is cut off by a hand roughly grabbing his collar and yanking him down to waist-level.

"Shut up and come on, moron. You have _a lot _to learn about before tonight's through, so do me a favor and try to keep up. Come on, Saber; you're going to have to help me with all of this explanation bull."

With that, the Master of the trio begins dragging her sputtering, raging cousin behind her to the house, her Servant obediently following while shaking her head and hiding the whimsical smile on her face. It would be a long night indeed, but an entertaining one with Lizzy taking the lead. That was to be certain.

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><p>Meanwhile, Rin Tohsaka was busy screaming into a pillow on her couch in the Tohsaka Manor's sitting room. In her rage, she throws the pillow across the room with all of her might and simmers. Archer was in Spirit Form, two of her thirteen gems sacrificed to simply help in beginning the slow process of healing his wounds.<p>

_Saber…WHY?! _Rin screamed in her mind, clutching her head in her hands. In only one night, her mortal-enemy had already taken away the last thing that had separated them in standing.

She had summoned a Saber AND nearly succeeded in killing Rin. She was now the better magus. To make matters worse, Rin was forced into remission until Archer healed while Lizzy and SABER were free to move across the board, likely easily no match for any Servant save Berserker with the Servant of the sword's superior strength. She was imperfect, she was helpless, and she was humbled as she simply fall back on the couch and closed her eyes to memories of yesterday.

From the depths of her memory, a picture-perfect day in a sunny park of three best friends comes to mind, and Rin tries to remember where it had all gone wrong as those three pairs of blue eyes changed in witness to the world's harsh reality.

_How could you do nothing? How could you let her go? You _abandoned _her!_

Hearing those words, Rin falls asleep to dreams of better days as tears leak from her eyes.

Friends and family come and go, but enemies never leave. Not even if you kill them and bury them deep.

* * *

><p>"So, let me see if I understand all of this." Shirou sighs as the three of them sit at the table, long since cleared of the meal shared betwixt them. "Seven magi all fight for this Holy Grail with dead people brought back to life to get a wish from that same thing, and it's supposed to happen every six decades, but because a wish didn't come true last time it's happened way ahead of schedule. Your dad and mine were both participants of the last one, two of the last three standing even though your dad technically didn't have his…Servant anymore. While my dad was <em>your <em>Saber's last Master. Dad ordered you to destroy this Holy Grail and that's what started the fire, he rescued me, and then gave something to heal Lizzy of cancer that belonged to you and made the two of you connected. Do I have that right?"

Both women nod, relieved smiles on their faces that he seemed to understand that much.

"And what else, Shicchan?" Lizzy asks, knowing that this was even more important to pound in than the other stuff.

Shirou sighs again. "The seven Servants and Masters are all way out of my league because the Servants are heroes and the Masters are magi from distinguished families, so I shouldn't try to fight any of them unless I have you or Saber near me. I should act like I don't know anything about the war in public and I should call you if I find out about the other Masters or Servants without drawing any sort of attention to myself. You only have three command seals, and thus three chances to get either of us out of trouble should something go wrong, and I shouldn't rely on that because she'll disappear completely when they're all gone. Our goal isn't to kill the Masters or Servants unless out of options, but to stop the Holy Grail and the fire from ever happening again."

"Yep, you've got it all. Finally. After five hours." His cousin breathes a sigh of relief.

"Hey, this stuff is way over any normal person's head! Cut me some slack!"

Lizzy threw him deadpan look. "I understood all of this by the time I was five, and I had a lot more to be thinking about at the time. I love you, but you can be downright slow sometimes."

Shirou grits his teeth, his eye twitching and mind empty of comebacks.

"Anyway," Lizzy says conversationally as she rises and stretches her arms. "C'mon, Saber, we should get some sleep while we can. Goodnight, Shicchan."

Saber stands and gives a slight bow to the dejectedly-slumped read-head. "Goodnight, Shirou."

"Night." Shirou is too busy rubbing his face with his hands to look at them, muttering his reply.

The two silently take their leave while leaving the read-head to come to terms with all of the new info.

* * *

><p>"Lizzy," Arturia bites her lip, eyes on the floor and cheeks beet-red with her back to her undressing Master as a question continues to chew at the edges of her mind. "Do you truly think the Grail is cursed, as you say it is?"<p>

Lizzy groans in annoyance. She was beginning to get sick of this game of twenty repetitive questions. "What would have started the fire otherwise, Tori? We've been through this."

The Servant doesn't answer, her heart wanting to deny it but her mind, a small part, agreeing with her Master's logic but still hating to. The silence reigns in the room, broken only by the rustling of cloth before that itself ends. A soft but firmly gripping hand on the blonde's shoulder spins her around slowly, the barest caress of knuckles on her cheek forcing green eyes to meet blue in surprise and embarrassment.

Arturia flinches in guilt at the sight of a smile—warm, caring, and understanding—that greets her, soft upon her Master's lips while her eyes convey tenderness. It could only be called a loving smile, and it made the Servant's stomach tighten inexplicably, her entire face and the skin down to her collarbone exploding into a deep shade of cherry. Lizzy chuckles softly, so quietly that Arturia is sure she would not have heard it had they been standing so close, and sweeter than sugared-honey.

"I know it is hard to accept, Tori, but even before this, I know that I told you your wish had a damn good chance of being a lie. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. You didn't see that fire; you didn't see the hell of it, Tori. People burning in agony, people crushed by collapsed buildings, and all of them crying for help with empty eyes as they watched everything they loved taken away in the blink of an eye. What thing that does that kind of large-scale damage can possibly be called 'Holy?'"

"But…my country…my people…"

"Are gone, dead, and unimportant." Lizzy says firmly, smile gone and eyes filled with an understanding kind of pain shared by kindred spirits. "Tori let me ask you something. You know that Britain is still around in today's society, right?"

"Yes, but—"

"Then you have nothing to save in the first place. Humanity, throughout every age, has had a tragic devastation, yet we always recover. Britain was no exception, it just took time. What you did, it really did have an impact. Despite your rule happening at a time where people had difficulty documenting anything that wasn't entirely world-changing events for the Old World, and most kings and queens from then are never so much as mentioned in history—even though your story is written off by many as folklore—there is no way to concretely deny that someone named Arthur of a position of some similar seat of power existed. People _know _you exist and that you did _something _big, Tori.

Your country rebuilt itself, it prospers to this day, and you never once broke your king's vow in your life. Isn't that enough? Doesn't that mean that you really did win in the end? _Think _about it, Tori, please. Can you tell me I'm wrong?"

The silence was deafening.

_Is she…? Doesn't it? _Arturia thought hard, searching her heart for the answers. Seeing this, Lizzy let her think. Memories of her greatest friends and the little family she had kept appearing and passing in front of her eyes. Memories of the day she received Caliburn, and then Excalibur. Finally, there were the memories of the day of her death, of Mordred's revolt.

"I don't know." She finally opened her eyes—when had she even closed them?—and looked up, her face solemn as she shook her head and answered in a quiet voice.

Lizzy doesn't say anything, just warps her arms around her Servant in a warm hug, rubbing circles lightly on her back. Arturia brings her arms up to hug back. She was used to this from the other girl; it was her way of being a comforting presence and showing affection. Arturia didn't know when the tears began to sting her eyes, or when she had shifted her head to nuzzle into her Master's neck, but she's silently-sobbing into Lizzy before long, relishing being held like this.

"Don't give up, Tori. You still have a reason to fight, and you know you do. I can't kill this thing without you…and you aren't going to leave me alone…like last time, right?"

Arturia somehow finds the strength to pull away enough to shake her head. Feeling that not enough an answer, she takes a deep breath and swallows the lump in her throat. "No, I won't."

"I love you, Tori."

Another deep breath and the flash of a shaky smile. "I love you too."

"More than last time?"

The smile shatters like fragile glass, green eyes diverted to the floor in shame. "I love you the same; I simply had no choice then, Lizzy. Now, however, I do, and I am not leaving your side. I promise."

Lizzy smirks, gently tilting her still-red face up with a finger under her chin. "Liar. I can see you blushing; something's changed."

"You aren't a child anymore."

"And what does that mean to you?"

"What…does…? It means…" Her face is on fire, but they're so close that it would do her no good to look away. "It means…some of the things…from then…we-we cannot carry on."

"Oh, do you mean…like this?"

What little distance was between them in the embrace is closed, light and soft lips being pressed to hers with the touch of a feather. Arturia stiffens. A wince of her shoulders as her spine shivers. The kiss is chaste, but when Lizzy breaks away, Arturia is still dizzy with all of the blood pounding underneath her temples.

Lizzy gives that phantom chuckle again, her eyes sparkling and lips drawn into a snake's smile. "Remember how many times I used to do that?"

Arturia just barely inclines her head in a nod, mind still melting from the heat and pressure. "Mm-hmm,"

"Is it different?"

"…Mm-hmm,"

"In a bad…or good way?"

"I…I don't…" Arturia blinks too many times, her eyes closed longer than necessary as she fumbles for the words.

"Let me put it like this; would you be objective if I…did it again? Like I used to?"

Arturia actually smiles, looking at Lizzy from underneath her blonde fringe. "You would regardless…always did."

Lizzy lets out a real laugh, still quiet, yet louder and longer. "You're right…but?"

The brunette gasps softly when warm lips are pressed to her forehead, a cool hand brushing aside her bangs and coming to rest on her crown. It must have been a good thirty seconds before Arturia pulled away, her lips having burned a hole into Lizzy's skull. The knight rests her chin on the other girl's shoulder to whisper in her ear with a devious smile.

"If there is one thing which I have learned from that time, it is that attempting to deny you is a fruitless effort."

Arturia pulls back from the embrace altogether, leaving a gaping Master as she takes up one of the two outfits from the top of the room's dresser that were designated as hers and goes into the bathroom across the hall to change.

If Lizzy's thought process had not flat-lined, she would have noticed her hurried pace as she left.


	3. Clashing Differences

Disclaimer: I, sadly, don't own anything except Lizzy Rider. I hope you enjoy, and don't forget to review.

* * *

><p>Lizzy awoke to the usual soundtrack of people preparing breakfast amidst the still morning silence, for once not dreaming of her father's death, but nor was it a dreamless sleep. Feeling something warm held in her arms and light breathing beside her, Lizzy sluggishly lifts her head up from her very comfortable pillow, only to laugh when she sees the drool stain on her bedmate's shirt to confirm her suspicions. Who would have thought someone's chest was such a good pillow? Arturia certainly did not seem to mind either, if the faint traces of a contented smile on her face were anything to go by, that is.<p>

_Mn, I really hate to wake her up…but if I don't, she'll either be pissed at me, or Tigger will when she comes in and sees her in my bed…damn it! She looks so cute to~! _Lizzy's face scrunches to match the displeasure of her thoughts, but she carefully props herself up on an elbow anyway, the other hand slowly moving from Arturia's side to her shoulder.

"Tori…Tori, get up; we have stuff to do today."

The blonde cracks one eye open, the sparkling emerald showing not the faintest sign of evident wakefulness. She sits up in one fluid motion and stands from the bed just as quickly, already moving towards the dresser for the spare school uniform Lizzy had unearthed from her closet's depths the previous night while her Master follows suit at a much less efficient pace.

"Did you sleep at all? Or were you just awake before me?" Lizzy says between a yawn and the popping of her stretching muscles.

"I slept soundly, but I awoke with the scent of frying fish. That would be breakfast, correct?"

"Mm-hmm, do you remember the 'guests' we'll be having?"

"Taiga Fujimura and Sakura Matou come here every day, the latter a friend to you and Shirou who is always consistent in arriving to help Shirou prepare the meal and the former the legal caregiver of the both of you since the event of Kiritsugu's passing." Saber answers promptly as she heads for the door. "You needn't verify such things in the future; once informed, I have apt enough a memory."

"Sorry, I'm just a little used to my empty-headed cousin. You're a nice change, though."

Arturia gives her a smile over the shoulder and a soft laugh. "Thank you, though I think it wise you give Shirou some form of credit for his attempts of reasoning last evening."

Lizzy simply shrugs. "He has good days, and some not so good days."

Arturia shakes her head and continues on her way to the bathroom. Twenty minutes later, the blonde meets her Master in the hallway while adjusting her necklace and the two proceed to the living room together. Averting her eyes to the kitchen upon entry, Arturia's sights immediately land on a purple-haired girl next to Shirou in a school uniform similar to both of theirs, looking around their (her biological) age.

"Morning Shicchan, Sakura-chan. Ah, I don't know if Shicchan told you, Sakura, but we have a temporary boarder with us starting today."

"Ah," At the sound of her greeting, the purple-haired girl turns to reveal a sweetly-pleasant smile and matching eyes, a pink bow in her hair and a pale-pink apron over the uniform. "Yes, good morning, Lizzy. It's a pleasure to meet you, Saber-san, especially after all of the stories we've heard from Lizzy over the years."

Arturia pales at that, her head whipping to the sheepish girl by her side who laughs nervously. "C'mon, I didn't tell you guys _that _much."

Sakura blinks. "Really? What about all those times you convinced her to go roof-sledding or the summer you two nearly drowned in a pond when you snuck out to go fishing without permission on a vacation to Michigan?"

Lizzy sighs in defeat before laughing at her own expense. "Eh, okay, maybe I told you a few over time. Besides, live and let learn, right?"

Meanwhile, Arturia sighs in relief…though she does wonder why Lizzy would make such an elaborate back story…or was she simply using a half-truth? In retrospect, she should simply be content that this meant her circumstances would be relatively painless to explain.

"I'm glad to see you actually got dressed before the last minute, Liz, but do you really think that will save you from Fuji-nee's wrath?" Shirou essays, and Lizzy frowns, one eye briefly twitching.

"No, Shicchan, but I really doubt she'll have too much of a problem with it, given my and Tori's history. Besides," The group's eyes follow her as she walks to the fridge and rummages through it, producing a bento-box. "I have a fool-proof peace offering handy just in case."

"When did you make that?" Arturia asks. She had no recollection of Lizzy leaving the room during the night or early-morning.

"She didn't, I did." Shirou answers in a grumble. "I knew Fuji-nee would be mad, and she knew I would help her without even being asked. I hate it when you do that."

"No you don't; you are a total sucker for helping people. Plus, I can't help it if the thought of Tigger mad gives you bed-wetting nightmares."

Shirou bristles and flushes. "It does not!"

"Does to," Lizzy sticks out her tongue. "Who do you think had to wash your sheets as kids, dummy? Now, hurry up and finish getting the food ready before she gets here."

Shirou grumbles under his breath about it being only one time, but turns to comply, throwing a betrayed glance to the giggling Sakura. Speaking of the devil, thudding footsteps sound, rapidly approaching in the hall before the paper door is flung open with enough force to logically break it.

"Shirou~! Sakura~! I'm ready for breakfast~!" As if sensing the suddenly tense atmosphere at her entrance, Taiga Fujimura freezes, fist still high in the air, smile still on her face, and eyes still closed. She opens her eyes with a childish grimace on her face, lowering her arm. "Hey, what's—oh, well, look who's up for once! Good morning, slacker~!"

"Slacker, I'm not the one who's nearly late to her classes every damn day…" Lizzy grits her teeth at the remark while Taiga goes back to grinning like a fool, walking past them all to take her usual place at one end of the table and wait for breakfast to be served.

It is only _then_ that she notices the fifth member of the normal group of four, freezing mid-step right next to the blonde girl by her second charge.

"Hey…wait a minute, who is this? Lizzy? _Shirou_?" The red-headed boy stiffens at the deadly gleam in the carefree teacher's eye as he is set in her sights. Why would she be mad if the girl was his guest?

"Relax, she's mine, Fuji-chan. Sorry, it's sort of short notice, but when a long-lost friend shows up on your doorstep in the middle of the night…well…"

"Long-lost friend?" Taiga sets her sights on the brown-haired teen, who calmly stares back in a nigh-perfectly blank mindset. "You can't mean that this girl is…"

"Tori Knight, I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, Taiga Fujimura-sensei." Arturia breaks in, as rehearsed, stepping forward with a hand outstretched and chest purposefully pushed forward to bring attention to her necklace. "Lulu has told me much about you, as well as the others, and I apologize for any sort of intrusion I may be causing with my arrival…I've…had some family trouble from home. Forgive me."

"Hey! How many times have I said that only Dad called me that?" Lizzy cries in genuine indignation and outrage. She merely gets a sideways glance from the blonde, her eyes saying 'I know'.

"Uh…" Taiga blinks in shock, looking from the girl's eyes, thence to her hand, thence to her chest, and back again before finally taking the hand offered and lightly shaking it. "Right, well, it's no problem if that's the case. It's good to finally meet the good side to our little devil."

"Shut up, Tigger."

Taiga grits her teeth, but visibly swallows her anger and ignores the comment. Meanwhile, Arturia tries to stifle a chuckle at the by far apt nickname for her Master. Mimicking her cousin's earlier sentiments, Lizzy looks absolutely wounded by the laughter.

_No~! Tori's a traitor~! Why, world, why?! _She childishly wails on the inside, the tears her heart cries overflowing.

* * *

><p>"I'm sorry, but do you want an ass-kicking, bitch? Because, I swear to God that I just heard fighting words from your stupid mouth."<p>

Arturia grimaces at the foul language from her Master, but keeps a stony glare on the raven-haired girl before them. Rin, in turn, grimaces in distaste and offense.

"I said it would be wise for an alliance between us, as much as I hate the thought myself, Rider. Someone certainly has a quick temper, don't they?"

"Don't play bullshit with me, Tohsaka; you said we _need _to team up. From where I'm standing, the only one who would _need _that is you. Like Hell I'd help you after the crap last night. Like Hell I'd trust you after the last ten years of bull you've pulled, even. If you didn't want to lose the war this early, you should have done what that bastard of a father of yours did and holed yourself up in that rundown dump you call a tide and true mansion. We're done here. Saber, let's go."

"At least my father wasn't so careless as to let his only child onto the field of battle continuously."

Lizzy glares at the girl from over her shoulder. "Ugh, you are so dumb for all your second-best book-smarts, I swear. In case you've forgotten, or in case he never told you, my dad had an alliance with the previous war's Saber and Shirou's dad. The strongest Servant and the strongest Master, a great pair of bodyguards they make. I'm sure you know Kiritsugu Emiya's reputation, after all."

"What if," Rin's fists clench at her sides, her eyes hidden by her bangs as she swallows her pride through gritted teeth. "What if I told you that I wanted a chance to see Sakura? To talk to her again?"

"Pfft, you mean after ten freaking years you _finally_ want to make it up to her for being a piece of shit sister? Work on you bald-faced lies, Tohsaka, before you try to pull a fast one on me. I've been lied to by too many people too many times. You've had many an opportunity to talk to her instead of stalk her from a distance, anyway. Why would it take an alliance to get you to say 'I'm sorry' to her?"

"Rider…! Listen-"

"Fuck you! I've done and listened, now get off! I'm through listening to nothing new from you. Saber, we're going to be late, so let's hurry. What a wasted lunch period."

Saber follows obediently as they proceed to the rooftop-stairway's door. Rin watches them go, holding in a scream of frustration. She didn't expect the Servant of her rival to glance back, but she meets her gaze with puzzlement. She shakes her head as if to clear it and keeps moving as quickly as she'd stopped, almost as if it had never happened.

Rin could swear she'd seen pity in those orbs of emerald-green, and it took the fight out of her.

* * *

><p>"Lizzy," Arturia's frown deepens when she only gets a grunt in reply, her Master's eyes not even flickering in response. She tries again, this time reaching and grabbing her forearm to stop them both from continuing the walk home, her tone firmer. "Lizzy,"<p>

"_What_?"

The Servant is not off-put by her snapping. "What is wrong? First, you were acting unusual after our early-morning encounter with the Tohsaka girl, and now you have been moody ever since the time after lunch. Is it what she said?"

"If you honestly couldn't tell from following the conversation, _yes _that's what's bothering me. And why wouldn't it? That self-righteous bitch just thinks I'll up and forget everything she's put Sakura and me through, she's got one hell of a wake-up call coming when my sword's lodged in her chest. The next opportunity I get, and I'll _make sure _she sees it coming. Now, come on."

"Wha-Where are we going?" Saber barely has time to get out as Lizzy grabs the hand that was holding her arm and proceeds and dragging her along the rest of the way to the Emiya Estate. Only she veers away from the main house.

"To the dojo, dummy."

If she'd have looked behind her, she'd have seen Arturia's eyes light up despite her face remaining curious. True to her word, Lizzy slides open the paper door of a detached building about the size of a barn not far from the storage shed. Inside is a sight that sends the blonde knight's heart secretly soaring.

Polished, wooden floors of a wide-open, well-lit, quiet space that holds rows of swords. Not just boken and shinai, but honest, gleaming, blades hang on the far wall. The Servant makes a beeline for the mounts that cover nearly half of the entire wall to examine the collection of her titular-namesake, like a child in a sweets shop. She reads the small title plaques that sit underneath each one. Targets lined another, but that was all that was in this haven of the sword's art.

A set of ten, identical dirks, an English, Roman, and German Arming, a saber, a longsword, a rapier, a katana, a backsword, a flamberge, a two-handed claymore, a 1700's smallsword, and an executioner's sword. All finely polished, hair-splittingly sharpened, and kept in extremely well condition from the grip to the leather scabbards that hang respectively beside them. Most—if not all—of these were centuries' old antiques, and still looked regularly-used and combat-worthy.

"Are you going to stare at them all day or try one out?"

Saber looks over to her Master, awe and hope written all over her face. Lizzy grins and gives an encouraging nod from beside her. After a moment of debate, her hands reach cautiously for the claymore.

Lizzy watched as Arturia stepped forward and began swinging and slashing at invisible foes, the sound of steel cutting air cleanly ringing throughout the dojo. In a matter of moments, the brunettes earlier brooding is forgotten as a wave of nostalgia comes and sweeps her under into memories of yesterday. Arturia's style relied much on overhead slices and repelling, outward slashes and strikes, overpowering her enemy. How many enemy's had she seen cut down by her beautiful knight? Too many. Yet she still never got enough of watching the ancient king's form. A childishly-wide grin of glee blossoms on her face, her adrenaline pumping just like it used to back then.

Only now…

Arturia's eyes widen in shock and surprise as a clash of steel on steel ripples the air, looking in disbelief at the locked guard of her sword with an English Arming sword and her Master behind its blade, grinning like a foolish child playing with her favorite, dangerous toy. Funny, she used to know a certain little girl that smiled like that quite often. Arturia's lips tug up at the corners as the same thought goes through both of their minds. After all, she doubted the Emiya boy owned swords like this if he could simply reproduce them through his Magecraft.

And the fight began. It was time to see what her first and only pupil of the sword had learned while she had been away all of these years. Yes, long overdue. Laughter could be heard among the symphony of blades before too long as the two old friends began the dance of steel.

* * *

><p>"ELIZABETH ANN RIDER! JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING, YOUNG LADY?!"<p>

Lizzy and Arturia freeze, swords raised mid-strike and both of them panting slightly, cheeks flushed and uniforms damp with sweat. Taiga, Sakura, and Shirou all stand in the entryway of the dojo, the adult of the group glowering at the two duelists.

"We were about ready to call the police and send a search party for you two! What are you doing here and WHY are neither of you wearing protective-armor?! Both of you have _a lot _of explaining to do!" Taiga continues her triad.

Both guilty parties look to each other and then to the dojo's sole window. It was already dark out. They'd been sparring for a few hours, probably missing dinner, which would likely be the real reason Taiga was this upset. Never get between that woman and food.

"Um…Shirou saw us before we left school when he was helping Issei…he should have told you we've been home for awhile now. Unless, he himself is just returning home, right Shicchan~?"

"Your cousin can get his earful later!" Taiga interrupts the brunette's plan of shifting attention to her now sheepish-looking cousin. "If you two have been home, why didn't you at least say something? You've gone and worried me all night for nothing!"

"Taiga, you know, unlike Shirou, _I _would call you if I'm at all going to be late coming home. I have before, so why would I stop now all of a sudden? Besides, I'm sure we were pretty loud in here, how could you not have looked, heard us at some point, and _then _come to check on us?"

The brown-haired woman stiffens, a bead of sweat rolling down her cheek. "Ah, well…now that you…Wait! That still doesn't tell me why you two are fighting without the proper equipment! One or both of you could have seriously gotten hurt!"

"Like you, we're both professional swordfighters. We have enough control not to land direct hits when using blades, so don't worry. Besides, if we did get hurt, then that'll be on us, not you. So, is dinner ready?"

She knew they'd won as soon as a sigh escaped past her guardian's lips. Lizzy flashes an innocent grin while she puts the Roman and English Arming swords away, Arturia following suit with the claymore.

As the party proceeds to the house for a warm meal, Lizzy feels a gentle hand clasp her shoulder and looks over to see Arturia smiling at her, a smile of pride and praise that is warm and satisfying.

If it weren't for the cover of the night, the Servant would have seen the darkening flush creeping across her Master's cheeks. Instead, no one notices the two clasp hands, fingers intertwined, and proceed into the house aglow with happiness.

It isn't until after the show of Shirou's ear-chewing-off at dinner that the two of them speak, both coming to a surprised halt in front of the hall bathroom's door with towels in hand. Shirou was already heading to bed and Taiga had just left to escort Sakura home before returning to her own home herself, so the two were alone.

"Ah, hey Tori. Sorry, I'll just go to the other bath. Both of us got our fair share of exercise today, huh?"

"Yes, I believe so. I must say, I am most impressed with your prowess; you displayed wonderful mastery of the sword today, and I could not have asked for a better sparring partner."

Lizzy beams a bright smile, feeling her cheeks warm slightly. "Well, me either. It's been so long now that I can't remember my last decent match against somebody. I mean, Taiga's nothing of a challenge anymore, but you…wow. And it was just like I was a kid again, watching the way you moved. For the way you fight like a man of the middle Ages…your very…beautiful…and graceful, Tori."

"If you wish to compare beauty and grace, I suggest you watch yourself practice. Never before have I seen someone combine acrobatics and swordsmanship. So many flips and dance-like turns, always trying to break into the enemy's defenses rather than attempt to match them for strength and overpower them. Not to say that you don't have strength either; your blows were well-aimed and each had such raw intensity behind it. You handle your weapon in both the aspect of a tool and an extension of yourself in the same reasoning. Then there is your collection itself—"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down! Is it just me, or do you feel like you could go on about swords and swordsmanship for hours too? Thank you, though…err…for, uh, the compliments. I've, well, I've worked really hard these last ten years…just like I promised I would. Anyway, I'd better go get a bath before bed, otherwise I'll stink tomorrow."

Arturia scratches a finger along her jaw. "Ah, yes, you ought to…um…I will see you shortly, then. Lizzy?"

The brunette glances over her shoulder. "Yeah?"

"I'm glad you were able to keep your promise…At least one of us was able to, but, if I'd been offered a choice, I would have liked nothing more than to have stayed and protected you. You know that, do you not?"

"Yeah," Lizzy turns around and walks back to her, lifting her crestfallen face so their eyes meet with a sad smile on her face. "I do. So, what are you going to do this time?"

Arturia simply shakes her head, taking a step out of Lizzy's reach. "Beyond the war…I do not know."

"Alright," Lizzy nods, turning around. "See you in a bit."

Walking away, there is both acceptance and determination in the Master of Saber's thoughts. _I can accept 'I don't know' for now, Tori, but by the end of this war, whether you are staying or leaving, I have to know for sure. I couldn't handle you just up and vanishing on me, not again, not without warning. _

* * *

><p>It was half an hour later, Arturia came in to find her Master already under the covers. There was a note from on the paper door in her hand, which she read again.<p>

'_Skipping school tomorrow. Wake me up at four to sneak out. We're going to see the town.'_

It was logical, Arturia supposed. Going and scouting out battlegrounds and escape routes should foes seek them out at inopportune times. And, judging from her guardian's behavior this evening, Lizzy would not be able to simply ask or make an excuse to stay at home, especially not tell the truth, given that Taiga was no magus. Shirou may understand, but would likely disapprove as well, so it was best they told no one.

Still, in order for Arturia to execute this order, this meant it would be prudent for her to remain awake. While she had no qualms with this—after all, she had stayed up for days on end in several instances during her previous life—it brought mixed feelings to the forefront of her mind. She had done this once before, and as that time, she reflected while taking vigilance over her Master.

_She certainly has grown strong…I doubt any ordinary human would be able to keep up with me the way she did if they had not trained to their breaking point and beyond, but…_

'So, what will you do this time?'

_Well, at least she can take care of herself now. However, I do wonder what she has done in the ten years we have been apart. Kiritsugu never seemed like apt parental material to me, or even a guardian…Well, there was his and Irisviel's daughter…and Shirou seems well enough off, I suppose, but Lizzy is yet another matter entirely. I do so wish I could give her more than empty assurances, but it is simply impossible for a Servant to remain in this world, even if I had a choice, there was just no way for me to do so. Not then…and not now._

Arturia smiles bitterly, shaking her head of such thoughts. There was a time and a place for such things, and that was in the future.

_If nothing else, I am glad we were able to meet again. I am glad that, in the end, I was able to save someone, and that the 'someone' I saved was you…my Lou-Lou belle…my little princess._

* * *

><p>AN: Nope, we don't get to see her full awesomeness yet, but we do get some angsty-comfort. Ah, poor Artie; still as clueless as ever, huh?


	4. Day for a Date

Disclaimer: If I owned it, do you think I'd still be in high school?

Warning: Short and dialogue-heavy.

* * *

><p>"Alright, I think that's the last of them. At least, that's all that I can think of, what about you?" Arturia's eyes dart from the map held betwixt them to her Master, simply nodding in reply to the question.<p>

The sun read 7am in the sky, and the streets were quieter than they were just a little while before, now that the working-class and student-body that made the majority of morning rush-hour had passed by. The two girls stood in the center of the Shinto district of Fuyuki, having scoured a great number of areas from their early rising that morning. After getting dressed in the casual wear that Lizzy had given her on their first night together, Arturia had dutifully woken the other girl and they made their escape within only twenty minutes; breakfast of apples quickly in hand, supplies packed in a bag over Lizzy's shoulder, and with no one to disturb them in the nightly-morning. It turns out Arturia had been incorrect on her Master's reasoning in the grand scheme of things. As she had watched her leave red-herring clues to Taiga about medical-obligations, Arturia soon learned that Lizzy only wished to avoid _explaining _her excuse.

'The best lies are told when you never have to say a word, Tori.' She had said.

"Yes, I believe this to be sufficient enough for our purposes." The blonde quips with just a hint of tartness under her business-tone. While she generally disapproved of Lizzy's methodology, she still thought their course of action best, and so she did not show or directly voice complaint.

Lizzy beams. "Good, because…well, you know, we have the whole day to ourselves, and I mean _the whole _day. I was hoping I could show you the…less battle-oriented things in Fuyuki, let you see what's changed. Sounds good, right?" She quickly takes the map and folds it up with expert quickness before tucking it into her bag from behind.

Arturia arches an eyebrow. It is not to say she feels anything sinister lurking within the suggestion, but something…peculiar. Still, this was a request from her Master; she would be remiss in her duties to deny her something so simple. It also was not as if anything would occur that she, as a Servant, would be unable to protect Lizzy from, especially not in the daylight.

"Very well, I am certain there are many things that can help our free time to be enjoyable, and, in any case, it is not as if there is much anything else to do. Where shall we be headed first?"

In hindsight, alarm bells should have been ringing as soon as she caught sight of the face-splitting grin suddenly adorning her Master's face, but she would pay it no mind until later. As Arturia allows Lizzy to drag her away by the arm she gentlemanly offers to her, her mind vaguely recalls another, just as excitable princess of hers and the amount of distress both she and her current Mistress used to cause her when put together.

* * *

><p><em>Well, I should have expected this eventually. <em>Arturia thought with wry amusement as she eyed the numerous books lining the rectangular table before her, all of the rather thick, somewhat dusty volumes opened to specific pages…and all of them were about King Arthur.

The pair currently sat in the hushed recluse of the Fuyuki City Library, seeing as much of what her Master 'had in mind to do' was not currently open to the public due to the early time of day. The only people here besides them was a group of librarians manning the front desk, whom they sat safely out of earshot from for this…interview to take place at a safe decibel-level.

_Still, I cannot believe she _planned _this. Of course, I am certain she would have come up with more detailed questions about my life than the limited range of which she could come up with as a child, but waiting for the day I would inevitably come to her again to ask each and every one? _

"No, I hadn't actually planned this…well, not until you showed up a couple of days ago, anyway." Lizzy whispers from the seat beside her as she leafs through pages of a spiral-notebook filled with notes and reference-citations.

"I am inclined to believe otherwise given the rather convenient circumstances, Master."

Lizzy looks up to give Arturia a half-hearted glare that is ruined by her humor-filled smile. "In case you're forgetting, the Grail Wars are supposed to happen within six consecutive decades of each other, not one. By the time we would have met again, had whatever the hell happened now not happened, I'd have been an old woman with white hair and liver-spots whose only concern regarding you was that you do your job."

Arturia frowns deeply, eyebrows knitting tightly together. "Are you saying that you would have forgotten who I am, or rather, who I was?"

The wince is only barely noticeable, invisible to any eyes save her sharp emeralds. "Well…sixty years is a really long time, Tori. Plus, there's the fact that I _was _five last time around; I can remember you, Maiya, and Iri, sure, but most of what actually took place during the war…" She shakes her head, laughing quietly to herself.

Arturia nods as she studies the grain lines in the wood of their table. She was right, of course, and it was not as if her hypothetical-speaking mattered very much in the grand scheme of things. So…why was there that tiny sting of disappointment suddenly in her chest, as if her heart had been given a shallow paper-cut by her words?

"As adorable as you look, pouting doesn't suit you, my knight." Again, Lizzy's voice cuts through her thoughts.

"I am not pouting, merely digesting your words, Master."

"Uh-huh, sure, then why are your cheeks puffed out?"

"My apologies," Arturia blows the collected air in her cheeks out in a sharp huff before looking sourly to the other girl, surprised to see her deadpan-expression.

"The point is, Tori, that it _hasn't_ beensixty years. I still remember and love you, and I promise there will _always _be _some _part of me that remembers you deep down, okay? Now, do you mind telling me if there really were three Guineveres?"

Arturia's face melts into one of complete bafflement "What on earth are you talking about? Three Guineveres?"

Lizzy just smiles one of those bright, childish grins and jabs her finger at a certain part of a certain book's page as she begins elaborating.

* * *

><p>"I still cannot believe that such a fate is what truly befell Merlin." Arturia ponders aloud as the starlit clouds lazily roll by them on their walk, sheltering the moon from view. "To think such a sweet-seeming girl was really a witch in disguise, and yet Merlin always <em>was <em>such a skirt chaser…"

"Are you saying Morgana didn't trick you?" Lizzy answers with a roll of her eyes.

"She wasn't painfully shy and stuttering with every word she spoke." Arturia shoots back. "Besides, I could always sense something was…different about my sister, even when she behaved civilly."

"Because she didn't bother to hide it, yet you trusted her to turn you into a man, thinking she had no ulterior motives? All because Merlin needed her help so it would work in the first place? Come to think of it, why didn't you just have Gawain…?"

"That is unethical and cad. Besides, Gawain was my nephew, as well as my knight."

"Again, you said yourself that he looked like your fraternal-twin…and you didn't have a problem letting Lancelot sleep with her, until Mordred exposed them to hurt you."

"I stole Guinevere from him unintentionally, and I knew there could be—"

"Don't. Say. It. Tori, there are plenty of people back then who fell in love despite that it was considered sinful, and there is nothing morally wrong with loving someone of the same sex. So don't give me the, 'we-were-both-women' excuse. And if it happened _after_ her miscarriage and after you two were married, _he _stole her from _you_."

"…Regardless, two women cannot—"

"Yes, they can! There are ways!"

"Name one."

"Oral. And who said a relationship had to be all about sex in the first place?"

Arturia feels her cheeks blisteringly-warm at that. "Wha-What are you blathering on about? What does 'oral'—?!"

Lizzy sends her a snake smile over her shoulder. "Remind me to show you some time."

"Sh-Show me…?! W-W-What…Why would…y-you…can't be s—"

"Well, you are my type."

"WHAT?!"

"God, relax; I was kidding…maybe."

Arturia stops, her world suddenly spinning. "I-I…I…"

Lizzy stops, grabs her by the arm with her free hand and pulls her along, a faint blush on her cheeks seeming nonexistent compared to the blaze covering her Servant's face. "Didn't know I swung that way, did you? Yeah, it's a long story." Lizzy laughs loudly into the still night air at her own expense, the shopping bags secured on her arms shaking with her body's rumbles.

"B-But…you…and I?!"

"Like I said; joking."

"There is nothing humorous about such things, Lizzy!"

"Sure there is! You just have to think about."

By this time, Arturia's voice is shrill and loud with indignation. "WHY would I think about…?"

"Because, you know you want to." Lizzy winks.

"…" The knight doesn't know what to say to that, so the slapping of their footfalls on the sidewalk is the only thing to break the silence as they get nearer and nearer the Emiya Estate.

The two had undergone a busy day indeed. After the library, Lizzy had dragged her to the zoo where they had seen lions, tigers, monkeys, pandas, giraffes, and the Reptile House and indoor aquarium. Then, after her stomach made its need known, the two decided for a picnic in the small park near the shopping district. Mini-golf had been her favorite thing by far, two full courses, though she could not get used to the thing called a 'putter'; the sport was better when using swords.

She hugged the lion Lizzy had bought her from that odd animal-themed toys tore tighter, wondering how the others would enjoy what Lizzy got them as well—though she knew Fujimura-sensei might agree with her on her charge's sense of humor. The beaded and feathered bracelet she had made for herself and Lizzy as a symbol of camaraderie shifts on her wrist with the action, the paper-crown Lizzy had likewise made her at the art-crafting shop in the bag she held loosely at her side, along with the toy sword that strangely resembled Excalibur to her eyes. She still found the arcade suspicious of knowing her identity, but Lizzy insisted it was a 'lucky' coincidence.

She was still a bit sweaty from what Lizzy had made a competitive-trip once they set foot in the city's recreational center. Her loss on that account still bruised her pride, but she had tried to do as Lizzy and brushed it off, stating she had always been better focused on swordsmanship then gymnastics.

Overall, the day, up to this point, had been very memorable and fun; full of laughs and newly-made memories courtesy of the digital camera Lizzy had not put away since she had snapped a secret photo of Arturia cuddling a little lion cub to her chest. Her Servant still insisted 'Samba' would have found their company much more preferable to being enclosed at the zoo, but there was no way she was going to come home with an _actual_ lion. She could make due with a plushy Samba instead.

"Personally, I'm still wondering about that weird little girl we ran into at the park. It's obvious she's the Einzbern's latest puppet, but why do you think they'd make a model like her? If she is a model, that is."Lizzy says to break the silence as they come to stand on the doorstep.

Arturia raises an eyebrow, her blush not entirely abated. "But Irisviel had said that her daughter was older then you by a few years. It couldn't be her."

"I dunno. It could be. After all, she's at least part homunculus; they could have done…alterations to her." Lizzy shivers. "That sounds so creepy…Anyway, there's really only one way to find out for sure, but I'd hate for the chance to."

"Why is that?"

"Because it means we'd be meeting her again. Not only is she the definition of innocent terror, but I doubt a family as old as the Einzbern knows how to let go of a grudge. They probably don't doubt Kiritsugu—if they don't know he's dead—would summon you again, and have highly likely come prepared for that. Probably a Berserker, given the strength boost of Mad Enchantment and the right type of Hero and you, my adorable King of Knights, are finished."

A forgotten but lingering wound is suddenly poked within the deep recesses of her mind "I see…" _Berserker…Lancelot…_

"Uh, hey, everything okay, Tori?"

"It is nothing. Please do not concern yourself." Her tone is empty, even to her.

Lizzy's eyes narrow, the brunette shaking her head after a moment of scrutinizing her Servant's profile. "Still trying to lie to me, huh? Alright, I'll let it go for now, but do me a favor."

"Yes?"

"Keep the past in the past."

Arturia slowly shakes her head in denial. "I will not stray from our objectives."

Lizzy gives her a knowing and warm smile. The Servant is immediately struck with guilt at the sight. "No, but you won't let it go, either. It's okay, though, I know these things take time."

_More than you know, Master. _"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For being selfish."

Lizzy sighs softly, tiredly. "Don't do this."

"What?"

"Sell yourself short. You are the least selfish person I ever have and ever will know. You may be dense, you may be stubborn to the point of naivety, but you are anything but selfish."

"How do you know?"

"Because, someone selfish would not give up their livelihood, their entire body and soul, for a dying country, and keep fighting for that country _beyond _death."

"But I am selfish to you." The blonde protests weakly. "You have tried to make this day memorable and here I stand, thinking only of my troubles."

"This day was memorable. Didn't we laugh, and joke, and reminisce happily? Didn't we make new memories to build on the foundation? I have pictures to prove it's the definition of memorable."

"…I suppose."

"Why do you torture yourself?" Lizzy finally asks, her tone neither angered nor exasperated, but genuinely inquisitive.

"Excuse me?"

"You are a glutton for punishment, always having to blame yourself for something, most of which is never really your fault to begin with."

Arturia takes a deep, even breath and lets it out slowly, her eyes closed. "You wouldn't understand." The blonde expected many things; for her Master to finally become angered and yell at her, to be hit, or even to be kissed during this temporary weakness in her defenses with her eyes closed.

She did not expect to be left standing there as her Master entered their home, without so much a sound, without so much a pause for debate, and without any signs of anger or resignation in her actions; no slamming of the door, no added briskness or hesitation in her pace, nothing.

Immediately, Arturia knows she has somehow made a grave mistake.

* * *

><p>AN: Okay, yes, I know I am evil for cutting out the date, but I have a good reason. That being that if I had written it the way I'd planned, this chapter would have been about, oh, twenty or so pages. Way. Too. Long. For those of you that are confused on what happened on the date, or who want more than what I gave you in the chapter, here's a summary:

1. They went to the library and had an in-length discussion about the fact and fiction of King Arthur's legend.

2. They went to the zoo and saw a bunch of animals, including lions.

3. They went to that park Shirou goes to like twice in the anime, and of course, ran into Illya, who basically tells them: "You should come play in the forest, it's lots of fun. I'll be waiting, and bring onii-chan."

4. They go to a put-put park and play mini-golf (remember that sport that Arturia enjoyed in life that was apparently an ancestor of golf?)

5. Like in the anime, they went to that store and got Saber her lion-plushy, but this time they got something for everyone else to; Lizzy got a dragon (bravery), Sakura got a purple bat (understanding grief, death and rebirth, and illusion), Taiga got a tiger, and Shirou got a dog (helpfulness).

6. A pottery-café, where Arturia made them both friendship bracelets to go along with the necklaces she and Lizzy have and Lizzy made Arturia a paper crown to coronate her as her king.

7. A gym/rec. center, where they did gymnastics as a way to burn off energy from doing nothing but walking place to place (That gets boring, no matter how many different things you do, trust me.)

8. An arcade where they played games and got a toy Excalibur with their tickets (a reference to Saber Lion as she has a mini-Excalibur and she's supposed to be a bonus costume of Saber in a spin-off game)

Now, the question of why I changed it?

For one, I was always dissatisfied with the cannon date between Shirou and Arturia for his lack of planning and for the fact that they had the whole day and only went to four places, all of which but one really didn't seem like great ideas for things SABER would enjoy.

Secondly, Shirou only took her on a date all to try and convince her to give up the Grail. To me, that was the equivalent of him trying to get in her pants (think about it.) Lizzy's date, however, was so that she could focus on the few GOOD things Arturia actually enjoyed in life, which she would know because she had the decency to ask about Arturia's actual LIFE, not just her legend or her wish. (How come Shirou never does that? That always confused me, since he's supposed to be such a considerate guy.)

Thirdly, I always hated how the fight between them was so dramatic. I get that it should have been, given the circumstances, but I think they both overreacted a bit too much for the sake of it.

Bonus Q: Also, how many LOVED Lizzy's trolling/confession/coming out of the closet? Because, I laughed for so long while I was writing that…absolutely priceless. Now, show of hands who thinks Arturia _really _believes she's joking?

Please drop a review, and I hope you enjoyed it.


	5. Shock

Disclaimer: Do I look like I'm rich?

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><p>Arturia stirred groggily from sleep, the afternoon sun shining brightly as her mind slowly began waking up. Her mind felt foggy and slow, she felt chilled with the sweat on her skin yet she was oddly warm and comfortable. She only remembered a freezing blizzard…lost…alone.<p>

The Saber-Servant tried to move from her bed, but her body wouldn't obey her properly, her muscles feeling achy, her legs in particular…

It was then that Arturia realized that there was something on her, she was naked, and it was a certain area rather than her legs themselves that ached, her mind already clearing of the fog as her eyes adjusted to the sunlight's glare from the window above her head.

One thought crossed the Servant's mind at a nauseating crawl as she felt her eyes very slowly blink; _what in the bloody hell?_

A hum, sleepy and contented, sounded from beside her, and Arturia looked down, remembering the weight on her chest. A head of wild, dark, chestnut-brown locks fills her vision, causing her mind to come to a grinding halt and her blood to freeze.

"Oh…dear…Lord, we didn't…!"

Seconds later, fragments of the memories of earlier today begin coming back to her, horrifying her with the revelation that, yes, they did, and it was no accident.

* * *

><p><em>Arturia stood, dumbfounded, gaping at the unbelievable sight before her, her entire body numb and her heart aching in a mix of pity and a desperate need to make this horrid affront to the eyes cease.<em>

_She had never seen her Master cry before, but here she sat; phone still loosely held in her hand, body curled against the wall, and her free hand very poorly muffling the sobs that shook her body as though she were freezing._

_It was only moments before that she was taunting and sneering at the boy—Shinji Matou, Saber remembered—over the phone. Then…something…happened and she just broke, and here Arturia stood, unable to do anything but helplessly watch her cry._

_Arturia Pendragon—no, King Arthur—had fought hundreds of battles and stood against many a foe of incredible power, so it went without saying that very little ever got under the skin of the King of Knights. Then again, Lizzy Rider had long since proved herself as an exception to the rule for the nigh-invincible king, and now only succeeded in further driving home that particular point._

_It was now, in horrified understanding, which Arturia recalled Taiga's parting warning to her this morning as everyone but she and her Master were preparing to leave for school._

* * *

><p>"Listen, I know Lizzy isn't really sick…not in the normal sense anyway, but could you stay here? I know she trusts you more than any of us, probably, so…" Taiga sighs, her hand searching the back of her head and mussing her short, brown hair, the nervously-strained smile and solemn look to her eyes disappearing for the most serious expression Arturia had yet to see on the teacher's face.<p>

Arturia blinks in response to the sudden shift in the other woman's demeanor.

"Look, it isn't my place to say what nerve you struck with her, but it's a big one, and real deep in her heart. That kid may never show it, but she's busted up worse than a lot of people deserve to be. You've got a lot of work to do to start off with fixing whatever mistake you made last night, and you'd better do it by the end of the day or I'm coming for you, understand?"

* * *

><p><em>She could only nod dumbly as a reply at the time.<em>

* * *

><p>Arturia had gotten down to kneel in front of her, begging her softly to tell her what was wrong, what she could do to fix whatever was wrong. Lizzy had explained, albeit vague and briefly, that her sickness as a child was the least of the hardships she endured and it was something involving her mother, whom Arturia had never heard mention of before now, not even if she were alive.<p>

Arturia had pleaded if there were anything she could do, she only need name it and the sky was the limit, if only to stop her tears.

Something inside of her was breaking as she had continued to watch every tear her Master was crying and again and again Lizzy had acted as if she had not heard her offer, continuing to call herself worthless and undeserving and broken.

Arturia had wondered with increasing fear what had made the younger girl go simply mad with sorrow, but when she finally did accept the offer of her Servant's request-servicing, she had been the one begging, begging Arturia not to hate her for being so vile, so selfish.

Arturia was not ashamed to admit the tears that had leaked from her eyes at that point, and from there it was nothing but a jumbled mass of lewd yet beautiful, fanciful bliss as the Servant of the Sword had scooped her Master into her arms and carried her away to fulfill what was asked of her.

Now, Arturia glances to the small bedside table, the digital-clock on the stand reading 4:30pm. The last she remembered, it had been only noon. How long had they been…been…and how long had they been sleeping afterwards? Regardless, the others would be home in just two hours, what were they to d—

"Tori…" The blonde looks to her other side. Sorrowful, dull eyes of pale-blue which were noticeably glazed filled her vision. They simply stared at each other for what felt like an eternity. "Do you hate me now…?"

Her voice was still broken, so quiet and unsure…

Arturia took her time carefully rising to a sitting position, Lizzy rising with her and gripping the blanket that barely covered her chest from view, between the two of them underneath it, tighter. Arturia, not caring that her own, entire upper-body was uncovered, did not hesitate to engulf the other girl in her arms, getting a small squeak of surprise for a reply.

"I feel…many things…which I cannot ascertain right now…but I do know, for absolute certain, but one thing…"

"…What…?"

The blonde pulls back enough to look the scared brunette in the eyes. "I love you…as what, I am also unsure of…but I _love you_, and could never, no matter what, feel anything but some form of love for you. That is my unshakable truth and self-certainty." And it was the promise of a lifetime.

Lizzy looked down at the bed beneath them, silent for a long, tension-filled moment, refusing to meet her eye. "…Do you regret…that I made you do this…?"

"You did not make me do anything, Master. It was I whom requested for you to ask something of me, and I did as I wished once you obliged that much."

"…Did you want to…with me, though?"

Arturia grimaces in deep thought. "This…was unexpected…surprising…and strange…but I did not object to it. I will not lie that this does not…change things in an unknown way…I will admit that I was nervous and frightened about what we did…However…I will be honest in saying that it was remarkably pleasant…and enlightening, to say the least."

Another long moment of silence ensued as she looked down once more. "We should clean up and wash the sheets."

* * *

><p>Arturia sighed as she listened to the sound of running water from beyond the other side of the door, her own shower having finished a good ten minutes ago. Her head pounded under the pressure of a million thoughts as she waited for Lizzy to be finished, their bed sheets, blankets and pillowcases all in the wash.<p>

_It is true that…what we did…I don't regret doing that. I did it, not for the necessity of prana, not because we are Servant and Master, but because I simply wanted…to make her happy, to make her sorrow abate. I suppose I have always wanted that…to make her happy, I mean, even before. After all, I held no obligation to entertain and watch her simply because her father was our ally. Iri and Kiritsugu never ordered me to do so, nor even ask me why I did this of my own volition._

_In my time, as a knight, wanting to protect a lady…and being physical with her…that would be enough to establish a courtship between us, without any verbal agreement between the two. However, can we truly be lovers? I will vanish eventually, and what would she do then? How can we live as such? There are too many complications, so many things to worry about, and how can I truly, romantically love someone when I could only ever love my country in an even remotely similar way? I_—

Whatever other thoughts were in the blonde's head were shoved aside as she looked up upon hearing the bathroom door finally open. Lizzy stood in the doorway, dressed in the same white shirt and acid-washed blue jeans she'd worn yesterday, her hair only slightly damp but neatly combed, and, most importantly, a spark of light in her once dull eyes again and a sheepish, tiny smile on her face.

"Why do you think it is…that whenever I'm with you, I can't seem to have near the control on my emotions that I ought to?" She asked it casually, trying hard to make sure they did not fall into silence, so that the conversation they desperately needed to have would be had.

Lizzy blinks, the impish smile turning into a tiny grin with just a hint of teeth. Her hands come to be clasped behind her back as she tilts her head to one side and leans forward just slightly. She was daring her Servant to guess.

Arturia sighs before pushing herself off of the supportive-wall she had previously been leaning on. "I think," She begins slowly. "That it is because, as much as I used to try and keep my emotions locked away, you can _always_ find away to bring them back. Even when you were a child; you could always break through the emotional armor I would place around myself, most of the time with just a simple expression or gesture. Now, I believe our relationship has just evolved from what it once was, to the point that I don't even think about attempting it anymore."

"You just answered your own question, then."

"I suppose, but not really. I asked you what you think, and I cannot answer a question for you, even if I _can _read your mind."

"Well, then, at the very least, we are in accord. Does that answer your question?"

Arturia allows the ghost of a smile to cross her lips. "Yes, but I have more. I believe it is only fair, considering how many questions you had me answer the day previous."

Lizzy nods, the grin growing a tiny bit bigger. "You know, I don't remember you being so good with conversation before."

"That's because I never usually spend over half an hour choosing every word I am going to say, formulating responses and questions alike."

Lizzy raises an eyebrow, mirth heavily-evident in her voice as her shoulders begin to just barely rumble with laughter. "I see you had a very revolutionary bath."

Arturia chuckles just loud enough for them both to hear. "You may say that, yes."

Lizzy's smile suddenly falters, her eyes shining with just a hint of dread and fear. "We can't pretend everything is normal now, if that's what you're hopping."

Arturia tries hard, but her mouth forms a nervous frown instead of a neutral line on her face. "Who said that I would even think something so foolhardy? That is actually what I wished for us to talk about…It is best we do so as soon as possible.

Lizzy sighs, a rush of air that sounds awfully resigned to Arturia's ears. When she looks back up, her eyes shine with that same desperate plea they held at the time she had made the request that had started it all. "What are we now, Tori?"

The blonde could do nothing to suppress a wince, a lump forming in her throat as she readied her question on her tongue. "What…What do you want us to be?"

"…I dunno…"

"May I tell you how I would answer that question…for myself?" Arturia's brow furrowed, her Master's voice was beginning to crack and slip into a strained tone.

"I…I…dunno…"

"Well, I suppose I can't give you a direct answer, but, if there is one thing that I hate more than not being able to save my country, it is seeing you miserable and unhappy. I know that every time I think about my past, it is of our time together ten years ago instead of my life which comes to my mind. I know that, even without obligation to, I would gladly give my life to protect you, as I did then and as I do now. I know…both what I had said yesterday, and what you accuse yourself of being are wrong, and I will talk myself blue in the face until I convince you of that if need be. You are beautiful, you are smart, and you are strong. However, I _don't _know what to make of us.

How could I ever feel right again if this causes me to lower my guard and something happens to you? What if I hurt you unintentionally again? What if you lash back and hurt me? What…What will you do when I disappear? What will I do? What _do _we do _now_? I…I just don't—mph!"

Arturia is cut off as her back slams into the wall with a soft thud, Lizzy's kiss muffling a sound of surprise that rises in her throat. Before today, Arturia would have stiffened or not responded at all, but after what they've done, the blonde does not hesitate in kissing her back, her hands resting themselves on Lizzy's hips as she tenderly, slowly, and deeply returns the firm, but not demanding, kiss. Lizzy wraps slender but toned arms around her neck.

With her kiss, Arturia tries to reaffirm her words and solidify every bit of truth in them. Lizzy is far more than even a dear friend to her, and she now certainly knows Lizzy's feelings for her, but she does not know what more they are together, nor did she really care right now. When she opens her eyes, they have somehow ended up on the floor, her arms tightly wrapped around Lizzy's waist and Lizzy in her lap, trailing kisses along her jaw before stopping to whisper in her ear.

"I love you, and I know that we have a lot more to talk about, but I've heard all I need to hear right now. We can make this work, Tori. So please, please, _please_ stay with me. _Be _with me."

"But—"

"You don't have to disappear; you don't have to go, not if you don't want to."

Arturia feels her eyes pop, her jaw coming loose. "H-How…? The Grail…"

Lizzy pulls back and stares her in the eyes. "Tor, I don't need a Grail to support you. Iri told me so. The Grail brings you here, but I—the Master—act as the anchor for the most part. As long as we have a strong bond, and an alternate source of energy, you can continue to exist after the war. I'm sure of it. You'd be a familiar instead of a Servant, but you'd still be here with me."

This time, it is on Arturia's account that the silence stretches on.

* * *

><p>By the time the others arrived home with the setting sun, a full course dinner was finished being made and any evidence of what had gone on in the early-afternoon taken care of.<p>

"Mm~! I'll never get over how amazing you are with Western food~! Even better than Sakura-chan, and even better than Shirou's Japanese~! Yummy! You definitely don't slack when it comes to cooking, kid!" Taiga exclaims as she devours her turkey leg in between bites of stuffing, honey-baked ham, green beans with fried bacon-bits, and scalloped-potatoes. Honey-glazed, homemade donuts with hot-fudge frosting rested at the table's center for desert.

Lizzy just laughs, scratching the back of her head. "Thanks, Fuji-chan, but you should really thank Kiritsugu for teaching both Shirou and me how to cook; we both just had different talents in the area…It also probably has to do with the fact that I'm not from here…maybe, I dunno."

"But I must agree with her. Your cooking is fit for only the greatest of kings."

"Hu—h?" Lizzy's head whips around to look at Arturia with owlish-eyes, her face burning crimson. "Oh…uh, well…th-thanks. You know…I could show you more of the basics if you want. I mean, I don't think anybody should be left without a means of food for themselves, so it'd be no big deal."

Arturia's small crack of a smile turns genuine and soft as she nods. "I would like that."

"So, is whatever happened between you two resolved?" Shirou drawls from over his own plate. Both Arturia and Lizzy stiffen as Sakura, and even Taiga, stops eating to look at them.

"Um…F-For the most part…we…I mean y-yeah. Yeah, we're…fine." Lizzy coughs into her hand, looking anywhere but at Arturia while the Servant seems to find her food even more interesting. "It was…just a little misunderstanding. I-I took something she said the wrong way is all. No need to worry, okay?"

"Really, cause you seem a little off s—Ow!" Shirou promptly shuts up with a very much unexpected punch in the arm from Sakura. "S-Sakura…what was that for?!"

"Sempai, a girl's business is her business. Please leave Lizzy-chan alone." Sakura says with a slight scowl directed at the redhead boy, leaving the young Emiya baffled, but with a put upon look to his face as he mutters an apology.

Lizzy shoots Sakura a grateful look while everyone is busy with continuing to eat, but neither that nor the wink the purple-haired girl shoots back fail to escape Arturia's attention and she is reminded of the phone call the Emiya house had received earlier.

* * *

><p>"<em>Emiya Residence," Arturia spoke diligently as she carefully picked up the house phone.<em>

"_Oh, you're that girl that's following around Rider, right? Is she there? I just wanted to make sure my upper-classmen is doing okay since she hasn't been at school for a couple days now." A male's voice, polite and charming comes from the other end, laced with concern._

_Arturia remains unfazed. "May I ask of you your name so I may inform her who is calling?"_

"_Ah, I'm Shinji, Shinji Matou." _

Matou? Then, he's Sakura's older brother._ Arturia thinks, remembering the name of the Founding Three families. _He must be the Matou-representative, unless they aren't competing in this War.

"_And you're Tori Knight, right? Tell me, since you're following her around, does that make you Rider's Servant? I've just been curious why you don't take Spirit Form is all."_

_Arturia's eyes narrow, her suspicions confirmed wholeheartedly. Matou was either very brave, or very stupid. "So, you're a Master, then. And what would be your true objective in calling here?"  
><em>

"_That is for Lizzy to know, you stupid Servant. Hurry up and get her on the line."_

_Arturia grit her teeth in reply. Either this boy did not know of her class, or she had just eliminated one of her two choices. Regardless, she marched off to do just that, biting off the polite words in telling this Shinji Matou to wait with noticeable strain in her voice. Despite that Lizzy had hardly spoken a word to her Servant all morning, let alone come out of her room, Lizzy had gone immediately to answer the phone with a dark scowl on her face. _

"_What the hell do you want, Matou, and don't you dare say it was to check up on me." Lizzy demanded as she picked up the phone, carefully pressing a button on the machine._

_Shinji's voice came through the machine's speaker so Arturia could hear it as well, markedly losing its earlier charm for flat condescension. "Well, something's sure got you stressed, huh? Relax, Rider, I called to tell you that you and I think you and should team up. Together with my connections and your magic and brute strength, we'd make a great pair, don't you think?"_

_Lizzy barks out a short, contemptuous laugh. "What are you huffing, Matou? We both know that you aren't a real Master, you little weasel. Whatever little delusion that you are an actual participant in this war they've got you under, it's just lies fed to you by that old worm so you'll do what he wants. You're as low on the scum-chain as they come, and as talentless too. _

_You know, the only thing I'm glad about is that Sakura chose to stay out of this mess, and that is your only saving grace. Quite frankly, if you weren't so damn important for all the sick shit you've done over the years, I'd have put you in the ground next to your good-for-nothing drunk of a dad _years _ago_. _So help me God, if you make _**any hint**_ of a move on Sakura during this little contest, my _Saber _will be gutting you faster than you can blink. Do I make myself clear, _Shinji_?_"

"_You…You bitch, I—!"_

"_One final piece of advice; did you ever stop and think that Sakura didn't ask for what's happened to her as much as you didn't ask for her to be there?"_

_With that, Lizzy hung the phone up with a sharp bang, glaring at it in disgust as if Shinji could see her._

* * *

><p>Arturia couldn't help but wonder if what Lizzy had said about the younger Matou sibling was true, or what exactly about that conversation had made her Master break down not long afterwards.<p>

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Hey, Sakura. Your brother called me earlier. He said he wanted you to stay here tonight. Apparently, he's having a bunch of his friends over since your grandpa's out of town, and I told him we'd be happy to keep you. You can take the guest room across from mine, okay?"

The girl blinks in surprise, but hides her confusion well with a mask of uncertainty. "Ah, a-are you sure, I'd hate to be a burden…"

Lizzy waves away her concern and shrugs. "Well, it's already done now, not much we can do about it. Besides, when was the last time you got a chance to stay over? You're fine with it, right Fuji-chan, Shicchan?"

"I don't see a problem with it." Taiga says, and Shirou nods his agreement.

"Sure, it's no trouble." The redhead replies with his characteristic, good-natured smile.

Sakura gives in meekly while Arturia wonders what is going on in her Master's head. It was a little while later when she would get her answer, as a soft knock sounds upon their bedroom door not long after Taiga goes home and Shirou to bed.

"Hey Sakura, come on in." Lizzy steps aside so that the younger girl may enter, her hands clasped in front of her as she stands nervously in the middle of the room. "I figured you'd come to talk, but, it's not really rocket-science."

Lizzy's smile does nothing to lift Sakura's spirit as lavender eyes stare at the floor. "Why did Nii-san call?"

Lizzy grimaces, her eyes darkening. "He wanted an alliance, Sakura. He thinks he's a tide and true Master, even though he isn't the one with the true power. So, what Servant did you summon?"

Sakura flinches, but brings her deadened gaze up to meet Lizzy's eyes. "Rider, I don't know her name, but she's got long purple hair and wears a blindfold, and when she got angry, right before they made me give her to Shinji, her hair looked like dancing snakes."

Lizzy's eyes narrow and her lips peruse themselves as she brings a hand to her chin in thought. "Snake hair and sealed eyes? Most Heroes stem from Greek Mythology… Do you think its Medusa?"

"It might, but the dreams I've gotten aren't really about her too much, just the people around her."

"Any names?"

"…All I know is that she had two sisters."

"That sounds like Medusa, but it doesn't exactly narrow it down either; there's a chance she's someone else."

"Why is she telling you this?" Both girls turn to look at a confused Arturia. This was not right.

"Because Sakura isn't technically a true Master of the war, Tori; she's the exception to the rule." Lizzy answers her Servant, reading her thoughts without needing to, again, before turning back to Sakura. "Alright, here's what I'm thinking, Sakura-chan…"

* * *

><p>AN: Okay, let me make one thing clear before I'm complained at or flamed. Oh, and no offense, in advance, 'cause I'm not trying to sound mean or rude, okay? :) Anyway...

Arturia puts duty first, no if's, and's, or buts. First and foremost, she's a KNIGHT before she's a Servant (case and point in episode four when she said she wouldn't attack an unarmed person...and ALL of FZ.) Also, Arturia is willing to put aside duty or **what she feels is right** in order to make those she cares for happy (Iri in ep 3 of FZ, Lancelot in her life, and Shirou of UBW counts in the case of protection-because she was with him and left Rin in Lancer's hands [and he COULD have very well killed her just as soon as he'd rescue her, looking at it as an outside observer].)

Also, has anybody else noticed that Arturia has this honestly sort of crooked sense of impracticality? Not right and wrong, I'm talking like what other people would view as culturally-ethical (And seemingly when it's supposed to be REALLY obvious it's wrong). If she thinks there's nothing wrong with sleeping in a basically unknown guy's room, or letting him use her as a lap-pillow later (:3), and the big one; letting him see her naked, technically twice in one instance.

Anyway, add all of the above together, and I don't think she'd see having sex with Lizzy to make her feel better as something wrong. Now that that's out of the way, I'd love your guys' opinions about how you think things are going, both with the story and their relationship.


	6. Forces at Work

Disclaimer: It still isn't mine, but does anybody know where I can find the new UBW anime? *squees*

* * *

><p>The clashing sounds of steel on steel ring sharply through the barren wood, a haunting echo. A mighty battle cry and the rustling of leaves shortly follow, blue and purple streaks playing cat and mouse among the trees.<p>

"RIDER! Get back here and face me, you lowly COWARD!" Saber roared, shaking the trees with her bellow as she brought her wind-encased sword down mid-leap, closing in fast on the unprotected back of her dodging foe.

_Clang!_

Invisible Air easily deflected the thrown chain-dagger, the other end still in its master's hand as they both reached the ground in a crouch, not but a yard apart. Saber wasted no time in bounding toward her enemy, ducking as the still airborne dagger circled around to ensnare her or give a glancing blow. Her beloved sword is impeded on its course for the infuriating Mount-Servant's neck with the other end of the chain-weapon—though it is obvious Saber is quickly gaining ground in the cross of guards with the weaker Servant.

Rider barely manages to roll away as Excalibur gouges the grounded-spot her head had been when she was forced to fall to break away. On all fours and low to the ground, Rider bounds away in another blur of purple to gain some desperately needed ground from the livid sword-wielder.

"RIDER!"

It was no use, Rider knew. Her Master had sent her head-first into an impossible fight, simply because his goat had been gotten by a sharp-tongued, smug girl. Sakura's friend. There was only one way out of this with her life, even if expending her mana to the required levels would cause the barrier to crumble, so would her demise. She could not die yet, even if Sakura seemed to be out of her manipulator's hands for now. Hopping on the nearest tree branch, Rider quickly brings up her dagger to strike, not so much as grunting as the spike pierces her neck and her life gushes in a rain of red.

There were two things she didn't count on; Saber's ability of Parana Burst and the ability of rage to nullify surprise. Rider's body begins dissolving in particles of violet as she falls, nearly cleaved in two, and Saber, armor and sword sprayed with her blood, has not even landed on the ground.

Livid emerald orbs lock on the bubble of red covered in a network of thick veins as it begins already to shatter, its creator's death cutting off its power. Still, Arturia risks another Prana Burst as she hears the voice she had desperately been calling to for the last twenty minutes answer very distantly in her mind.

_Tori…hurry…now._

_I'm coming, Lizzy. Please, try to remain conscious. _She replies, her legs working as they carry her as fast as possible.

She curses herself for not disobeying Lizzy's order, knowing that even she herself said the barrier's affects would make her a liability in battle. It did not matter how ill-trained your opponent was; there simply was no fight if you yourself could not even stand with fatigue.

_Hold on, please!_

* * *

><p>"<em>Ugh…!" That's all that Lizzy has time to say as a sudden wave of nausea and pain wash over her, Arturia managing to catch her as she hits the ground knees-first, her bag already coated in the settling dust.<em>

"_Lizzy, are you alright?" Sharpened emeralds are burning into her own as they search her paled-face, dripping sweat stinging her eyes._

"_No…" She manages through gritted teeth. "What…What in the hell…was that?"_

"_I tried to warn you as the school came into our sights. There's a barrier erected over this place, and not a simple one of detection…"_

"_What…? Wait, Matou! Damn that bastard…"_

_Arturia nods in disgusted agreement as she helps Lizzy to her feet before anybody can notice something distressful, her bag quickly in hand as they hurry further into the main campus. _

_Lizzy grows, low and feral. "Alright, if that thing is so strong you could sense it a mile away, it'll probably activate sometime later in the day, by noon at latest. We need to track Matou down before homeroom, because there's no way that thing won't affect me with how little magic I have. Soon enough, I'll be a dangerous liability in a fight for you. The Rider-class should be easy pickings for you, but if it is Medusa…you have to win before she activates her Noble Phantasm, Tori."_

"_Understood, but…"_

"_Don't worry. I'll be the one looking for Matou; there's no way he'd pull his Servant on me in broad daylight with still-conscious witnesses. But, in the meantime, we need home-field advantage. I'm issuing him a challenge, and I want you to be deep enough in the woods that you're out of the barrier's perimeters. No matter how long you have to wait, even if the barrier activates before Rider comes, and unless I issue a mental-command, you are to stay in those woods and wait to engage the enemy. Am I clear? Under no circumstances other than a sent signal, are you to leave your post."_

_Arturia bites her lip, green eyes wavering in the early-morning sun. "Lizzy…"_

"_Do not make me use my command, Arturia; I might need it later, and I am not wasting two in a single day. Besides, I have Avalon, I can take Shinji in a fight in my sleep, he'd be really, _really_ stupid to use his Servant, and I promise I will not hesitate to call you if anything happens so that I need you by my side. Now _go_."_

_And she had no choice but to obey, the curtness of her Master's tone and frigid look to those pale-blue eyes stinging worse than any striking blow._

* * *

><p>"W-What…?"<p>

When Arturia stood from the scattered pieces of broken glass that had once been a window, the sight of a boy's decapitated head rolling to her feet is not what she first expects to see, much less Shinji Matou's head, her eyes as wide in disbelief as his are wide in terror and dull of any life.

Her answer is delivered in the form of a weak, gasping grunt, one that breaks her heart and boils her blood at the same time as a wreaking stench of powerful mana hits her nose.

"Hello, Saber…"A chuckle that wraps around her through the air like a leathery snake's skin and makes her stomach churn.

"Caster…you…! Let her go!"

"I think not." The cloaked-woman laughs, the pressure of her arm around Lizzy's throat increasing enough to elicit another pitifully-weak gasp. "Unless you surrender yourself to me, I'm afraid I cannot guarantee the continuation of your Master's life."

"Saber…" The Tohsaka magus flails weakly in the hold of Caster's other arm around her waist. "R-Rider…order her… hurry." Saber briefly spares a fleeting thought as to where Archer is, her eyes still locked on Lizzy.

"Come here, Saber, and lower your sword." Caster smiles, then, an adult's amusement with a child, as Saber takes a single cautionary step forward.

"S…Sa…Saber…n-now…!" Lizzy manages to strangle out, her nails uselessly digging into Caster's arm as she fights for air.

"I would do as the girl says if you value her." Caster sneers. "She was hardly conscious when I first arrived."

Arturia grits her teeth, but lowers her sword to lie limply at her side and comes forward in a slow march. When she is just a step out of arm's reach of the witch, she stops, tensing her sword in her grasp until her entire arm is shaking with tension.

"You have me, now, let her go, witch."

Caster can only grimace before the world slows to a nauseating crawl, ice-blue fire aglow brightly in the sunlight. Maybe it was the sudden spike of mana in the air, maybe it was the sudden spurt of struggle from her suffocating-captive, but Caster is thrown off-guard.

—_**SABER!**_

Now was her chance. Acting on instinct and adrenaline, Arturia moves forward with her sword poised and foot half-turned, intending to turn and let the girls fall so that she would have aim for clean blow at Caster. Her muscles were still tensed, her body only just beginning to pivot, before her entire world comes crashing down.

"Ah…gah…!"

A gasped cry of pain, and blood drips, falling like mournful tears as they steadily paint the floor with a puddle of red.

It's Lizzy's blood.

—_**GO HOME!**_

And they are gone in a blinding flash of light, bestowed with the power of a miracle.

* * *

><p>"How…How could I do this? I'm so sorry…Lulu, forgive me, please."<p>

Arturia tried, but she could not stop the few bitter tears that fell as she sat vigil over her sleeping Master. Saturated in remorse and salt, the drops mingled with the blood that seeped from the wound on Lizzy's bandaged-chest, healing more as each hour passed. Sakura was more than shocked upon their arrival, the plum-haired girl currently caring for her older sister in her own room. The medics had been informed of the incident, and they were still cleaning out the school at the moment.

Lizzy stirs, moaning in her sleep as the wound is nearing completely healed, nothing more than a deep scratch beneath her breast. Arturia moves to carefully take the girl by the shoulders and help her sit up, one hand still gripping tightly to her Master's left hand.

"Lizzy? Lizzy, can you hear me?" She feels her slender fingers squeezed in reply as Lizzy's eyes blink open against the noon sun, slowly turning to look at her.

Lizzy manages a weak, shaky smile. "Nn…Hey Tor, sorry I worried you."

Arturia's disapprovingly-stern stare was not even half-hearted, though the faint flicker of anger that was buried beneath the wave of relief and well-masked regret was still enough to elicit a pout of childish-looking remorse. What little anger the blonde could muster leaves her with the air of an escaping sigh. Yes, she did worry her, yes, her actions were beyond irrevocable in their stupidity and tantamount to suicide, and yes, they had much to discuss, but…

Arturia smiles, and on anyone else, it would have looked tender, rather than amused. "I am simply relieved that you are no longer in danger; the rest can wait until later, when you are stronger."

With a kiss bestowed on her chestnut crown, Arturia says all that she can think to at the moment, and relishes the warmth and reassurance as Lizzy shifts so as to sink deeper into her embrace and listen to her phantom heartbeat. They stay like that for a while, basking in the silence and each other's company, before a growling sound disturbs the still quiet and causes them to break away in a slight startle.

Arturia raises both eyebrows slightly. "Was that?"

Lizzy has the grace to look sheepish. "I haven't eaten since breakfast…Wait, what time is it, anyway?"

Arturia feels her shoulders rumble with brief, quiet laughter. "It is a little past four o' clock. Come, if you are awake by now, perhaps Tohsaka is as well."

Lizzy blinks, once, twice, and then throws her head back and groans with her eyes shut tightly. "No~, I forgot about _Toh_saka~! Damn it! Ugh, Sakura so _owes _me…"

Arturia shakes her head, ignoring her outburst as she helps her Master into a t-shirt and to her feet, with an arm underneath her shoulders and Lizzy's over hers. Then, she remembers something. "Lizzy,"

"Yeah, what?"

"…If Tohsaka is Sakura's older sister, why—?"

"Ah, ah, ah, I can't tell you that."

"Why?"

Lizzy smiles, somehow, both wistfully and bitterly. "I promised Sakura I'd keep my mouth shut about her little closet of horrors to any living soul that dared ask if she'd do the same for me. I will tell you this; Sakura and I have been friends since a year before the fourth War, back when she was still a Tohsaka, and she is one of the only two people that can convince me to do something, even when I don't wanna do it."

She doesn't need to ask, but, "Who is this other person?"

The smile her Master gave was one of love if she'd ever seen one. "You, dummy."

Arturia reaches with her free hand to slide open the dining room door as they smile at each other, ready to face the world. Rin Tohsaka looks up from her place at the table, face blank, and Arturia can _feel_ the chill as all emotions but cold bitterness bleed from Lizzy's face, without even having to look.

"Tohsaka, hi…"

A play of emotions: anger, regret, sadness, confusion. Rin mutely sighs, starring at the reflection in her tea. "Why?" She finally asks.

"I had to." Lizzy answers simply, reading the obvious question. She takes her place across from Tohsaka with a glance into the kitchen at a busy, eavesdropping Sakura.

Rin's cup settles with a sloshing bang, and her fists rattle the table a moment later. "You didn't 'have to'! What made you do it?! Pity? Dominance? _What_?!"

"I had to because of Sakura."

Rin would have looked less surprised if Lizzy had punched her in the face. "W…What?"

Lizzy sighs, mopping her face with her hands. "Look, if you hadn't been there in Caster's grip, I wouldn't have saved you, but you were right there, so I grabbed you. I promised Sakura before the War really started that if you were ever in for it outside of our own business, and if I could do something about it, I would help you. That's all there is to it, so don't think you owe me for anything."

"Hmph, so what would you have told her if the first night had ended differently. 'Sorry, Sakura, I couldn't save her because I was too busy driving a sword through her skull?'"

Lizzy gives her a flat glare as Sakura brings out the early-dinner of heated leftovers. "Didn't I already say this extended to terms _outside_ of our little funk? Besides, you came to me looking for trouble that night; I had every right to kill you. Last but not least, Sakura knew that if someone else didn't finish you first, both of us would have faced off eventually. That's sort of the basis for this battle, right?"

Silence reigns as Lizzy ends the tense conversation by digging into the food. It wasn't until over halfway through the meal that Sakura broke the silence.

"Liz-chan…ano…I know it's selfish of me…but…"

Lizzy smiles. "What are you going on about, *Rambou-chan? You couldn't be selfish if you tried. What is it?"

A visible wince, but Sakura won't bring her face up. "An alliance.'

"Uh, an alliance…between?"

"You…and Tohsaka-sempai…"

You could have heard a pin drop, everyone's attention on the shrinking, violet girl.

"No."

Sakura does look up now, her eyes pleading. "Liz-chan…please."

"I'm sorry, but hell no, Sakura. This is one thing you can't beg outta me."

Sakura gives a scowl. "Sister doesn't have her Servant right now, and Caster knows it. If she can't get Saber-san, she'll take Archer."

"Damn…don't call her that, Sakura…" Lizzy growls, only loud enough for Arturia to possibly hear.

"S…Sister…?" If Rin hadn't been stunned near-silent at Sakura calling her sister, she may have made a protest to the idea herself.

Seeing Lizzy was wavering, Sakura calmly got up from her place at the head of the table and went to her best friend's side, wrapping her arms around her from the side without hesitation and laying her head on the brunette's shoulder.

"Sakura~!" Despite the whining, Lizzy returns the hug almost immediately, an affectionate smile clawing its way onto her face after a moment. She huffs a defeated sigh, the hand not around her junior smoothing her soft, purple locks, like a mother would when comforting her child. "You'll be the death of me one of these days, I swear."

Sakura beams a quietly smug, victorious smile. "I'll make sure it's a good one."

"Brat."

"Hard-head."

"Mousey."

"Chronic complainer."

"I _do not _whine, I-! Oh, wait, never mind."

"Caught you off-guard, did I?"

Lizzy gives a weak growl, hand moving to pinch her cheek. "Quiet."

"Love you."

The brown-haired Devil sighs. "If I didn't love you, I wouldn't be swallowing poison-dipped thorns doing this."

Sakura does a very good version of mock-innocence. "I'll owe you one."

"You owe me one every day this lasts."

The violet looks contemplative. "…Fair enough."

Now it's Lizzy's turn to smile. "It wasn't a request."

"You always give me a choice, even when you don't."

"…Yeah, I guess I do. You deserve it, though, pipsqueak."

"Is this for our benefit, Rider?" Arturia feels her heart clench as Rin speaks, the pig-tailed girl looking ready to spit nails while watching the display of…affection.

"Hmm?" Lizzy looks over, completely ignoring Rin, and sees the look of mixed hurt and confusion plain on Arturia's face. Her eyebrows disappear into her hairline. "Don't look like that, Tor. There's nothing like us between me and Sakura."

"Like…you?" Sakura looks dubiously-confused and Lizzy, once again, has the grace to look sheepish.

"Well…uh…Oh, screw it. It's like this; if there was any competition, Tori and I would still be virgins."

Sakura's cheeks turn scarlet, Arturia's face puts tomatoes to shame, and Rin blanches in disbelief and disgust. All three have wide eyes on a, to her credit…or criminally-insane testament, grinning and mildly embarrassed-looking Lizzy.

"Wait…y-you…a-and your Servant…?" Rin points a shakily-accusing finger, looking near fainting

"Master…your bluntness…" Her Servant mutters, looking very much like the Earth would do her a service in swallowing her up whole.

"S-So indecent…" Sakura follows.

"Well, it wasn't for mana, but I can still say we both-mph!"

"That is enough, Master." Arturia growls into her ear.

_You know you love me. _Comes from the depths of Arturia's mind, Lizzy's telepathic reply.

_At the moment, I'm afraid not. _Arturia replies with a mental-growl. _We must learn to control your peerless streak of honesty._

_I have control, but I choose when to use it just as well. Your and Tohsaka's faces are priceless, by the way, almost as good as the face you make when—_

_ENOUGH! Lizzy, please._

"Saber-san?" Sakura asks cautiously, seeing the blonde's dark scowl.

"Yes?"

"Is Lizzy okay?"

"I never knew the answer to that question before, and I doubt that I ever will."

Lizzy falls over, finally losing her balance in her sudden fit of howling laughter.

* * *

><p>"WE'RE GOING TO WHAT?!"<p>

Lizzy covers her ears to stop their shrill ringing, teeth grit and vibrating. "Jeez, Rin…You could give Fuji-chan a run for her money in the roaring department."

"I always knew she was insane, I just never knew how right I was." Rin mutters to herself, face buried in her hands as a dark aura hangs overhead the Tohsaka heir, unable to hear anymore. "What have I gotten myself into?"

Lizzy rolls her eyes. "Calm down, Drama Queen. It's not like we're going in there gun's ablaze. I actually have something, other than Saber, backing me."

"What's that?" Rin spits vehemently.

"Things you'll see and hear about when we go there, if you wanna come."

"You're giving me a choice?!"

"Well it's not like you can do much against _Berserker_ without your Servant."

"I can still help you! I have my gems, now that you finally let me leave the house."

"Sakura insisted, and you can't just walk it off when your life-force is drained a damn good bit like that, so it wasn't without reason."

"What about you? You impaled yourself on your Servant's sword! How are you even alive, anyway?"

"Magic is a wonderful thing, and a good magician—"

"Never reveals his or her secrets." Rin finishes with a smirk. "Well, at least you have pride."

"So, are you coming tomorrow or not?" Lizzy asks with her arms crossed.

"Like I'd let you try to kill yourself twice in one week. No, you mean too much to Sakura."

"So do you, or do you think she made me team up with you for giggles?"

The two stare each other down, each inclining their heads in begrudging nods of respect, warriors acknowledging their common interest. It was Sakura that brought them together, tore them apart, and pulled them back together, and Sakura would be the only thing that kept them together through these next days of hell.

"See you tomorrow, Tohsaka." Lizzy goes to leave the room, ready to tell Sakura that the sisters' to-be-shared room was now theirs and get as far away from her natural enemy as fast as possible.

"Rider, I want to know something before you go." Lizzy stops glaring a question over her shoulder. "What happened to you, back then?"

"During the war?"

"What else could I be talking about?" Rin snaps.

"You don't want or need to know. Thanks for the concern, though."

"We might kill each other one day soon. I don't want to die without answers, closure, and my sister is only one half of that battle. So spill it, Lizzy."

"The less you know about me—"

"Stop dodging me!"

Lizzy's entire body tenses, and for just a minute, Arturia—watching from near the door to make sure Sakura wasn't eavesdropping on their plans as per Lizzy's orders—thinks the younger girl may explode like she used to in her childhood.

"I don't have any obligation to answer you. It's my life and my business, and I don't care about you and your goddamn closure. Goodnight." Instead, with that, tension leaving her as quickly as it had come despite her angry words.

* * *

><p>AN: O.O...Awkward. So, did I do a good job with the first, real part of the war? For those of you wondering, yes I've changed up the timeline (a bit). This was Day 6/15. There aren't going to be any UBW elements, if the Caster thing confused you.

Arturia and Rin are both jealous, hee-hee :3 You have to love fake ship-teases…or is it? And Lizzy...subtlety is not her forte. XD

Oh, and Rambou is Lizzy's nickname for Sakura. Sakurambou means 'cherry' in Japanese, so she's pretty much calling her 'cherry-chan'.


	7. Ghosts From the Past

Disclaimer: If I owned it, Ufoutable would have been in charge of the anime from the beginning.

* * *

><p>The phone was ringing.<p>

The person once known as Arturia Pendragon jolted from sleep, barely chocking back a scream, her body covered in a thin sheen of sweat that plastered her clothes and hair to her. Blindly, she groped the top of the bed's shelf-like headboard for the cordless life-saver. Beside her, Lizzy drags herself to sit up in a startled daze.

"H-Hello?" Arturia mumbled as she juggled the phone in her shaking hands.

"Arturia," Rin Tohsaka's voice had become a default tone of hard-edged ominous with age.

"Rin? It's—" She glances at the faintly-luminescent numbers of the bedside table's alarm clock. "3am."

"You aren't going to like this."

Arturia's blood froze, sleepiness evaporating from her mind as she recalled just where she had ended up the last time a conversation with their London-owl friend began with those exact same words.

* * *

><p><em>Arturia opened her eyes to the sound of a steady drip and beating of a heart rate monitor, the glare of the hospital's florescent lights temporarily blinding her. Everything ached, and despite feeling as if she'd been sleeping for days, she felt exhausted. Her throat was dry, her breath raspy.<em>

_What happened? She asked herself as she tried to sit up in her bed, realizing there were both a morphine-drip and an IV in her left arm when all she managed to do was turn her head._

"Tori_, you_ lied_…" Oh, and there was a very beautiful, angry woman to the left of her bed as well, a very beautiful, angry _pregnant _woman, even better. _

"_Sorry…" She croaked. The former-Servant tried to smile, but it was glared to submission by her very pissed off-looking wife._

"_You said you wouldn't get dragged into Dead Apostle hunts anymore." Lizzy continues, handing her a small paper-cup of water with a bendy-straw._

"_Yes," The bed-ridden woman agrees after she manages to lift her head to the straw and proceeds to drain the cup's contents, clearing her now wetted-whistle of any flem. "And I wasn't so much dragged begrudgingly as, well, kidnapped and dumped square in the middle of the mess, love."_

"_Zelretch is on my kill-list as soon as I'm battle-ready."_

"_I am sure Lorelei would be more than delighted to assist you in that matter, love, but, thankfully, you aren't battle-ready."_

"_I'll need more than Lorelei…Shirou might need to come out, probably Tohsaka, if I can threaten her enough."_

"_I'm not so sure the Lord El-Melloi II will appreciate his top-apprentice being used in a scheme to throw the Clock Tower into anarchy." The former-Servant counters, rolling her eyes at the fact her wife is seriously considering killing the Director of the Clock Tower for her current state._

"_They told me you damn near got blown up, Arturia! Do not act like that is a fucking joke! You _aren't_ who you used to be!" Lizzy explodes, standing quicker from her chair than one would think someone of her condition could._

_Arturia flinches and regrets it, groaning as a wave of pain rolls through her. "Gah—! I know…Calm down, Lulu…remember your preeclampsia."_

_Lizzy glares, and from below her, her wife sees the angles of the beautiful, matured face she loves work against her. "The baby and I are fine, _you_ are not."_

"_Yes, love."_

* * *

><p>"How so?" Arturia heaved a sigh, mopping her face with her free hand.<p>

"Tor? What's wrong, baby?" Her wife reached over, resting the back of her hand on Arturia's neck. "Nightmares again…?"

Arturia nods mutely to her wife's concern, noticing how the other end had gone quiet. "Well, Rin?"

"You and Lizzy may need to move temporarily to London. That kind of bad."

"I told you, I've sworn off Dead—"

"The Grail Wars, Arturia, they're back."

Arturia blinks, inhales sharply through her nose, and groans from the depths of her soul. "Fuck…"

"_Tori_?" Lizzy all but jumps out of her skin, hearing the curse from her ever-God-fearing love.

She goes ignored. "When?"

"Be at the Clock Tower by the end of the week."

"Will do. Goodnight, Rin." The line goes dead in her hand as an answer. Tohsaka, ever the business-first type. Arturia twists around to carefully place the cordless back on the hook.

Lizzy can't take it anymore. "Okay, first you start having nightmares, now you're _cussing_? Explain, please, before I lose my head."

Arturia looks at her. "You may want to start some coffee, love; I doubt we will be getting anymore sleep tonight."

* * *

><p>As the tell-tale signs of the household's waking was heard around her, Arturia couldn't help but smile at her reflection at the mirror as she got dressed for the day. The boys had school, Susana had daycare, and Morgan still slept most of the day, Arturia simply had to call in one of her sick days from her built-up stock and they could have the whole day to plan the 'temporary move' to London.<p>

Their house was rather large, thanks in very large part to Lizzy. There were six bedrooms and three bathrooms; the two guestrooms on the first floor—which were in the second hallway, diverging from the first, with their shared bathroom in-between them at the end of the hall. The first was tucked back, opening just underneath the stairs to second-floor, which looked more like another room itself with its four-walled design, something Arturia found a bit odd, but also endearingly-unique. Her and Lizzy's bedroom and their own room's bathroom, plus the twin's shared bedroom and Susana's and Morgan's shared bedroom/nursery, were on the second floor, the twin's—and eventually Susana's—shared bathroom next to that room. The sixth bedroom had been turned into Tori's office and the house's computer room, once the twin's were old enough to use the computer without close supervision and without breaking it.

The baby's room was yellow and Winnie the Pooh-themed, diagonally to the left of the master bedroom and to the direct right of the 'public' upstairs-bathroom. The twin's room was blue and likewise hero-themed, with everything ranging from Disney to Power Rangers and everything in between. Her office was parallel the bathroom, next to the boys' room.

To add to that, the very spacious and acoustical attic had been made Lizzy's entire workspace, her profession bringing in a good chunk of the bread-winning's while Arturia's was the most consistent and steady source of their income. The basement was made the storage and chore-supply/equipment room, holding many boxes and other, miscellaneous or assorted, items. Had they ever needed it, the basement could have served as a second-function workshop, but, like everything else, their craft was…unique in that regard.

The very large family room was where all fun and family-interaction happened; a high skinny shelf crammed to the brim with board games, books for varying ages, art supplies, movies, and a tub of toys sitting next to the couch, and a closet in the basement filled with indoor, child's sports-props and videogames with their respective consoles. An HD, 54-inch, plasma-screen TV hung on the wall opposite the huge, two-piece couch. The family had even been known to have many an indoor marshmallow and hotdog-roasting over the fireplace that sat integrated into the wall between the TV and couch (with the adults doing all of the actual cooking, of course.)

Lizzy's favorite thing had to be when the gang would settle in for a movie, a jumble bowl of popcorn easily made with the swinging door to the kitchen just to the very left of the mounted TV, a large window with wooden shutters to the left of that and taking up the rest of the wall. The dining room was the first door on the right of the main hallway, where but a simple table big enough to seat nine was, and where the family ate every meal of the day, when possible, together (even when they had take-out).

Arturia descended the stairs to the smells of frying bacon and cooking omelets and pancakes accompanied with rambunctious noise from the dining room. When someone walked into the house, the first thing to the person's left would be the big living room, the couch's arm offering an open seat right next to them after someone simply set his or her foot in the door, which Arturia found very odd, but would never bother complaining about (they _were_ odd, and the home fit them.) As soon as she set foot in the dining room, Arturia was immediately greeted with—

"Good morning, Mommy."

"Hi, Mummy."

"Ahhh,"

—And smiled.

It was definitely a miracle that bestowed them with their children; when Illya had come to them one day and offered to be able to make them both the biological-parents of their future offspring, it had sounded absurd and too good to be true. Nothing had made them happier when it had worked, as they spent too many agonizingly slow months watching them grow inside of Lizzy, and when they finally got to meet their children. Both of their children, and then their third, and recent enough, fourth.

"Good morning, boys, Su." Arturia greeted. "Hello to you too, Morgan." She said as she played with the three-month-old boy's foot as he kicked and stretched his limbs as much as his swinging-chair would allow, Even now, he was a very active baby. "Arthur, William, I want you boys to come straight home after school today. No, you aren't in trouble, but we are to have an important family meeting, okay?"

"Okay, Mommy." Will chirped. Arthur, the eldest by five minutes, nodded silently.

Arturia's smile bordered on an outright amused smirk. The boys were stereotypical twins in every sense of the term.

Tufts of hair kicked down from wavy beds of hair that was in-between light-brown and golden-blonde, sometimes both and sometimes neither. Arthur sported bowl-cut bangs and a neat back-cowlick, Will grew his hair falling just past his shoulders, his bangs near overshadowing his eyes. They had Lizzy's almond-shaped eyes, her long, curling eyelashes, and her twin beauty marks. Their eyes were beautiful pools of bright, unblemished gold, a striking mix of blue and green. The rest, they took after Arturia; her pale skin and her face, perfectly replicated.

Their eighteen-month-old daughter, Susana, save for the color of her icy-blue eyes and the subtle curls twisting the golden waterfall falling to her tailbone, was a clone of the former-king on the outside. However, it was very clear who the toddler-princess thought of as a behavior-model, and it was that which made Arturia certain her sweet princess would soon grow to be the devil's second-coming, something she whole-heartedly dreaded.

Morgan was still a toss of the coin as to whom he would take after more, personality-wise. The shape and color of Arturia's emeralds, tinted with blue, along with her pale skin and the particularly straightness of his crop of dark-brown tresses, was all he took after Arturia physically.

Arturia would never outright admit it to Lizzy, but she had been saddened and scared at the thought of having to raise children made by someone else, even if they were to look at both of them as the parents. Lizzy had offered if they could somehow make her a man again, but Illya told them that the mysteries of Merlin were long since lost to the world and irreplaceable. That didn't stop her from making the next best thing. Of course, it was hard to explain to people,—since it was obvious they were related to both her and Lizzy—but they just left it at insemination and went along; the people could believe what they wanted.

The reason for that was simple; Lizzy had absolutely forbidden the idea of Arturia's posing as a man for their marriage, stating she wasn't going to allow her old life to repeat in a new time. It had taken four years, but Vermont had finally opened its doors to same-sex marriage, thus making it an ideal option for migration, specifically the suburban-paradise that was South Burlington. When they decided it was time to leave Japan and truly begin their new life together, Lizzy hadn't wanted to move anywhere else outside of the US, and Arturia had preferred somewhere close to England at the very least, since Lizzy did not want to be anywhere near, even driving-distance of, the Clock Tower. Compromise was most certainly a difficult task, on occasion.

"Tor, need you on catering duty!" Lizzy's voice floats from the kitchen.

"Sounds like a big breakfast." She tells the kids as she zips out the door. She found Lizzy, butt against the island and arms folded across her chest, a smile on her face causing Arturia to raise an eyebrow. She taps her chin with her finger, jutting it out just a bit. "Love, you've got something there."

"What, I can't smile at the love of my life?" Lizzy cocks her head.

"Mm, yes, but…" Arturia trails off as Lizzy hops off the island, walking one slow step at a time toward her until they are just an arm's-length apart. "Last night?"

"Shhh," Lizzy put her finger to Arturia's lips, shaking her head slowly. "Shh, no, no; we aren't going to talk about that yet. Let's get the kids to school, Morgan put down, and you called off first. Let's enjoy some crazy normalcy before we dive into this mess, okay?"

Arturia nods, smiling into the soft kiss that is her reward. She was right; this could wait for a little bit longer, but the ravenous hordes needed breakfast and their daily education.

* * *

><p>Arturia shut the door quickly behind her, effectively shutting out the cold as she gripped tightly the mail under her arm. She sighed as a shiver from the still-present chill on her skin ran up her spine. Winter had definitely set in, and it was in below-zero degree weather such as today's that made her realize how much easier the daily living of her life would be if she still were a magically-manifested Spirit.<p>

Shaking the pointless grumblings from her thoughts, Arturia scans the few envelopes that came in the mail, setting the rest aside on the family room's coffee table.

"Gas, water…ah, Epic Records, that's Lulu, good."

Arturia smiled, remembering the first Arturia had heard about the career that now fed her and their children so many years ago as she hurries up to the in-home recording studio.

* * *

><p><em>Lizzy sighed as they entered her room, obviously tired from that unexpected exchange with Tohsaka. The soft, methodical beeping greets them, and Arturia stiffens, on alert at the sudden sound, while Lizzy just moves past her, toward her desk. Out of place in the entirely traditional, Japanese-style house, a tall oak desk with three skinny drawers on each of its sides stood in the corner, accompanied with a comfortable, wheeled desk chair. Its surface was bare, save for a small reading lamp and some device which Lizzy opens, her face bathed in the small machine's bright glow.<em>

A laptop computer…_The term rings absently in Arturia's mind._

"Shit_." Lizzy's eyes scan something on the screen of her computer before she throws her head back and groans. Arturia is by her side in moments._

"_What is the matter?"_

"_My deadline." Lizzy mutters, face covering her hands, her head still thrown back._

_Arturia raises an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"_

"_My deadline for my song-publishing company. I have three days to submit a new song, which I haven't even really started on, or I'll lose the last payment of royalty-fees from my most recent-work. Let's see…how do I explain this? It's like…a modern-day bard that gets paid for his songs because they're more for entertainment than recording history."_

"_I see…and what does this mean for you?"_

"_Hmm? Based on the music charts…about three-thousand dollars out of my pocket. Granted, I've already gotten twelve grand from the rest of the year, but three k is still three k."_

_Arturia blinked. "…Fifteen…fifteen-thousand dollars…for what you do?" _

"_Well, there's more to it than that. Factors…like how many years an artist has been publishing, how many songs a year they do, whether they record it themselves or sell to another artist, things like that. I've been in the business…let's see…six years, now…and, if I can get it written, this will be my thirty-first song. I'm my own artists, I mean, they publish the demos I send in as stand-alone, but I sell my songs to other, bigger acts. Technically, those are cover versions. Anyway, I scrape by as a stand-alone, but the percentage I get for being the original writer when other acts pick it up are what gave me the majority of my money."_

_Arturia swallows, her throat having gone dry. "I see…"_

* * *

><p><strong>*<strong>_"She checks her pulse, gotta know if her heart's still beating._

_And the hospital's not far, if anything should happen here._

_She's bored in a week, big dreams but nothing material._

_And I refuse to believe love is for the weak, I said I'm not vulnerable._

_Hey lady, don't give up on me._

_Don't burn your heart out, love, till we're ash overseas._

_Hey lady, I don't wanna fight._

_Like pretty girl's need cowboys, I need you here tonight._

_She screams for more, more than just some blue-eyed metaphor._

_And the trouble is, the trouble is, she's always searching._

_And the hour's late, don't wanna hear that it's all goanna end soon._

_No, I'm not crazy, I'm in control._

_Yeah, and all of my friends still know._

_Hey lady, don't give up on me._

_Don't burn your heart out, love, till we're ash overseas._

_Yeah, hey lady, don't give up on me._

_Don't burn your heart out, love, till we're ash overseas._

_And hey lady, I said I don't wanna fight._

_Like pretty girl's need cowboys, I need you here tonight._

_I'm on one knee, lover, please._

_How can I put it more simply?_

_And I wait, oh, for your invitation._

_And I'm so, so, so over waiting._

_I'm on one knee, lover, please._

_How can I put it more simply?_

_Hey lady, don't give up on me._

_Don't burn your heart out, love, till we're ash overseas._

_Hey lady, I said I don't wanna fight._

_Like pretty girl's need cowboys, I need you here tonight."_

Arturia waited until Lizzy took off her headphones and put down her favorite guitar, waving to her from the opposite side of the glass. Lizzy smiles brightly, hops off the stool away from the in-ceiling microphone, and walks out from the big, bolted, fire-proof door, leaving her guitar in the booth.

"Hey,"

"You know," Arturia kissed her forehead, handing her the check. "I still think _your _version is better, but that doesn't change how much I love hearing my angel sing."

"Thanks, but Ivory's still the one bringing in the bills."

"But it isn't the majority anymore."

Lizzy's smile looks to be somewhere between coy and unconvinced. "No one with a properly-functioning head takes pride in their talents."

Arturia nods. "That is true, love, and so rare." Lizzy suddenly frowns, her brow furrowing as she stares at her wife for so long that Arturia's face becomes a schooled mask of impregnable blankness just to see of her expression would change. When it doesn't, the blonde knows she must be very deep in thought. "Lulu…? Lulu, are you alright?"

"Doesn't it scare you?"

One blonde eyebrow disappears into her hairline. "Does what scare me, Lulu?"

Lizzy sighs. Scarily, her expression doesn't change at all as she does, not even in any form of microscopic detail. "First, you start having nightmares about both of the previous Wars, and now another one is coming, fifty years too early, just like last time. What's next, are we going to start seeing dead people who were once important to us? Maybe your mother and my father will be having tea in Rin's office when we get to London and they can meet their grandkids."

Arturia snorts as her other eyebrow rises to join its twin. "Honey, I—"

"Don't laugh, okay? Weirder things have happened. And what with Illya's mastering the Third Magic by the time we left Japan…and who's to say Igraine isn't a Heroic Spirit, after all, you never met her, right?"

"If either of my biological parents were to be Heroic Spirits, the likeliest would be my father."

"Yeah, but it isn't _impossible _for Igraine to be one; you never know. I mean, look how much historians screwed up of the main part of your legend. Maybe Igraine was a Roman battle-princess or something before she was arranged to marry Gorlois."

"I love you." Arturia manages to swallow her snickering laughter, but she can't come close to biting back her grin at the idea.

She earns a smack on the arm from her wife for her trouble, though there is a blush and small smirk on her face to go with it. "Shut up."

* * *

><p>AN: Yeah, I played the 'it was all a dream' card. Don't worry; we'll get through all the Grail War, but I was…stuck, and then this came to me as I sat there thinking 'How am I goanna get through this?' Btw, the Fourth War takes place in 2005, so the 'Future Arc' here is taking place in late-2014 and early-2015.

Oh, and that bolded-astral is my footnote-marker so;

**(1): **The song Lizzy sang was Thriving Ivory's 'Hey Lady'. All of the songs Lizzy sings in this story (because we will see more) are not mine, nor am I making money off of them. I'm just not creative enough to be my own song-writer. :)

Let me know what you think in a review~


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